Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth have misled Australia’s pensioner, jobseeker and other social services beneficiaries.
On the surface, their measures to “motivate older Australians to take up, or increase, their participation in paid employment” represented excellent policy.
But both ministers made the fundamental mistake of not reading in full the 784-pages of Tony Burke’s proposed industrial relations legislation designed to “close loopholes”.
Sadly, among the 784-pages are measures that will apply the draconian “loophole” legislation to pensioners and other beneficiaries from the Chalmers/Rishworth scheme.
With tongue in cheek, I suggest that Chalmers and Rishworth, along with the rest of the nation, cross their fingers and hope that the seven independents in the senate block the disastrous legislation for pensioners.
Indeed, there is a lesson for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese from the Chalmers/Rishworth mistake.
In future, any proposal made to the Cabinet by a minister must carry a warranty that the minister has personally read and appreciated everything in the 784-page blueprint for business regulation in Australia, including the all important 500 pages of explanatory notes.
Unlike those who crafted the 784 pages, Chalmers and Rishworth actually understand that people such as pensioners usually don’t want full-time work.
In the 1960s, gaining casual work was difficult and, unless undertaken for family and friends, most people had to advertise in the local paper or drop flyers into letterboxes. It was cumbersome and discouraged such work.
What has transformed the opportunity for retired people is the emergence of platforms that enable both consumers and providers of work to see reviews and make informed judgments. And the platform process takes out the administration and payment risks out of the old casual work systems.
In the current environment, we have a shortage of skills and while the platforms enable older people to use their skills, they are often afraid of losing or reducing their pension and its benefits.
And so Chalmers and Rishworth clearly and carefully explained to them that these well-targeted new incentives will address concerns of losing access to concession cards, childcare subsidies and other issues that discourage pensioners and others on benefits from taking up part-time work.
But then Chalmers and Rishworth made a fundamental “mistake”, albeit one that involved telling the truth. They said their measures were aimed particularly “at short-term casual and gig economy work”.
As I will explain below, huge chunks of the 784-pages are designed to machine gun the “gig economy” by destroying the platforms that Chalmers and Rishworth are relying on delivering their benefits to pensioners and skills to the workforce. The pensioners will have to go back to the old practices of leaflets and advertisements. They won’t do it.
The five largest “gig” platforms are Airtasker, Uber, Freelancer Uber Eats and Deliveroo, but there are a multitude of other platforms that specialise in particular locations or areas of work. These platform systems are facilitating a thriving short-term commercial contract market operating in Australia and around the world.
People can be their own boss and choose which contract they seek to perform while the administrative problems of marketing, invoicing, payment collection and tax/pension compliance are overcome.
Thanks to a Victorian inquiry, we know that only about 0.2 per cent of the Australian workforce (26,000 people) use gig platforms for their full-time income.
Around 7.1 of the workforce or about 973,000 Australians use gig platforms for ancillary or top-up income.
And given the rise of mortgage and rent stress since the Victorian report was compiled, I suspect the percentage of Australian using the platforms for part-time work is now much greater.
As Chalmers and Rishworth set out, their vision is that the usage of gig platforms should rise even further to facilitate the re-engagement of pensioner skills into the workforce.
But a key thrust of the 784-pages is to treat these contract practices as very wicked.
The legislation aims to stamp them out even though it will mean a long bruising battle with the High Court of Australia.
As I described under the heading “Pending IR chaos thanks to bull in a China shop tactics” commercial contract system has been streamlined to make the gig economy even more efficient and beneficial to the community.
The destruction of the gig economy platforms in this 784-page business blueprint is ruthless. My summary below attempts to simplify countless pages and paragraphs of complex legislation, so is only part of the gig attack.
These platforms rely on commercial contracts and all the precedents and legal rulings that go with commercial contracts, including the fair contracts legislation.
If the independents succumb to the enticements they will be offered to pass the legislation in the senate, the gig platforms will suddenly become implementers of what are called “service contracts” which will be subject to the Fair Work Act which is, of course, is the employment legislation.
These commercial contract transactions of self-employed people will therefore be controlled as if they were employment transactions (They may even come under both commercial contract law and employment law).
But being classed as employment transactions means that somehow or other, Fair Work will need to apply rules to the myriad of transactions in the gig economy as though they were employment awards.
There will need to be some form of minimum amounts applied to countless thousands of different contract transactions. This may even involve superannuation.
The actual legal mechanisms used to implement simple platform contracts will be long and complex. Too hard not just for pensioners, but everyone, including IT workers.
We will return to the old systems, including a big rise in the cash economy.
It’s incredible any national government in 2023 would try to stamp out a global system that has grown up to provide supplementary income for at least a million of its people and now offers the opportunity to unleash the skills of pensioners and others on social service benefits.
My recommendation to Chalmers and Rishworth is that they don’t just cross their fingers, but hold secret meetings with the independents and plead with them to hold the line and reject the legislation or at least amend it so that the gig economy and the associated community benefits are not destroyed.
More Coverage
Leadership standard: Albanese called out
Anthony Albanese clearly never envisaged a world in which he himself would have to deal with Trump as US President. Now he potentially has is own personal trade war to deal with.
Diplomatic minefield could blow up in PM’s face
Anthony Albanese must persuade Donald Trump that exempting Australian steel and aluminium from 25 per cent tariffs serves the best interests of America.