Government pulls back from IR war

The bitter experience of Work Choices continues to mean that any changes to Australia’s industrial relations laws must be incremental at best, to avoid wide-ranging changes that risk substantially offending either side of the debate. Faced with the beginnings of a Work Choices-style revolt from unions and the ALP, Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter has quickly signalled he is not prepared to die in a ditch on the issue and will opt to take what measures he can.

From the outset, Mr Porter badged his reform agenda as being co-operative and focused on jobs. But he didn’t consult widely on the detail and the ACTU and Labor have quickly exploited this fact to attack the proposal. The exception was legislation that has the potential to isolate the militant leadership of the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union by allowing the super union to demerge. The CFMEU’s Victorian construction division secretary, John Setka, has fallen out with federal Labor and the ACTU. On this issue at least, for Anthony Albanese and ACTU secretary Sally McManus, it appears to be a case of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”.

On IR reform more broadly, after a period of co-operation involving employers, government and the ACTU during the pandemic, all sides quickly reverted to type. The corpse of Work Choices quickly was being exhumed by opponents to push back on moves for greater workplace flexibility.

Mr Porter had sought to sell the government’s IR package as a compromise that was acceptable because, unlike earlier attempts, it stood a chance of success in making it through the parliament and into law. Reform purists criticised the approach as being too timid, leaving in place unnecessary complexity for employers with too much duplication and too many awards.

But events have shown that even measured IR reform is no easy task. The conflict point was efforts to relax provisions that insist no individual worker be left worse off, actually or theoretically. The mining industry welcomed the changes, saying they would help ensure that Australian mining kept providing highly paid, highly skilled and secure jobs across the nation. Industry said improving the approval process for enterprise agreements and stipulating how the Fair Work Commission should apply the better-off-overall test would result in more certainty for employers and faster creation of jobs and wage increases in exchange for productivity gains.

But the Opposition Leader told parliament the proposed legislation would cut the pay of essential workers and give too much power to employers. The fight was quickly reduced to a one-liner that it would be unfair to cut the wages of those who saved the nation from COVID. Ms McManus labelled the proposed changes as the worst attack on workers since Work Choices.

After Scott Morrison sought to defend the reforms as “job-creating and job-keeping changes”, Mr Porter capitulated on the BOOT. This is despite having argued the contentious change would apply in only a small number of cases, was time-limited and would last for only two years. To fight on would have given the ACTU a chance to relive the campaign that defeated John Howard. In addition, Mr Albanese had been handed an issue with the potential to inject relevance and energy into what has looked increasingly like a demoralised opposition.

The government had little chance of pushing through in the Senate without Labor. One Nation said the proposed legislation would require “many, many, many changes” before the party would consider backing it. The government is to be congratulated for pushing ahead with reforms that make it easier for employers to hire and existing workers to keep their jobs. Given the history of IR reform, it is wise to be pragmatic, but the government must not capitulate entirely. With consumer and business confidence returning, attention must not be allowed to stray to the old politics of Work Choices but remain squarely focused on creating jobs.