Workplace reform underdone

The Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions has dropped blackmail charges against two CFMEU officials. As an outcome of the legal process, this result must command respect. Another vital imperative of our democracy is that executive government and the parliament pursue the national interest. That often will mean taking on the sectional interest of overmighty unions. In her response to the CFMEU case ACTU secretary Sally McManus said: “It is not acceptable for any government to attack the elected representatives of working people in order to advance their political agenda.” She is dead wrong to characterise reform as an attack, just as she was irresponsible last year in claiming for unions the right to defy laws they regarded as unjust.

The CFMEU’s entrenched position in the building game allows them to extract monopoly rents, pushing up costs. Ms McManus is right that the government deserves criticism — but it is for doing too little in industrial relations policy and doing it ineptly. This is especially troubling in light of the fact the CFMEU is an influential donor to the alternative government, which can be expected to do its best to defend its ally’s privileges.

On the anniversary of the 1998 waterfront dispute, former Patrick Stevedores boss Chris Corrigan claimed that not enough had been done to seize the economy-wide opportunities of more efficient ports. Productivity, it seemed to him, had stagnated. At a time of low wages growth it’s worth remembering that labour productivity underpins incomes and prosperity. Part of the problem is that the Coalition has allowed itself to be spooked by the propaganda line that reform will meet with another Work Choices-style defeat. Also to blame is a failure, from the Prime Minister down, to make a strong case for industrial relations reform, combined with weak and erratic political management by former employment minister Michaelia Cash and her successor, Craig Laundy.

True, Tony Abbott was vindicated by the 2014-15 trade union royal commission, which showed that the “elected representatives of working people” often served their own interests ahead of those of the workers. And Malcolm Turnbull’s administration can take credit for the difficult passage of key workplace laws, including establishment of the Registered Organisations Commission.

But the credibility of the ROC was weakened by the clumsy handling of last year’s police raids on the Australian Workers Union’s offices, which took the focus off union misbehaviour. And the beefed-up Australian Building and Construction Commission scored an own goal when its boss, Nigel Hadgkiss, had to resign last year after breaching the statute. Meanwhile, government promises to scrutinise the CFMEU merger with the Maritime Union of Australia have come to nothing. Mr Laundy admits Labor has been allowed to dominate the IR debate. Is it really beyond the wit of this government to craft a political strategy for workplace reform when private sector union coverage has fallen below 10 per cent?