Bosses put industrial relations heat on crossbench

Australia’s biggest employer groups have warned Senate crossbenchers that business confidence will be stifled if they block passage of Scott Morrison’s industrial reforms legislation.

Acting Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash will meet One Nation senators on Monday to discuss industrial relations reforms. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Australia’s biggest employer groups have warned Senate crossbenchers that business confidence will be stifled at the “worst possible time” if they block passage of Scott Morrison’s industrial reforms legislation this week.

With the Prime Minister determined to press ahead with the legislation to avoid the budget and three weeks of Senate estimates hearings, The Australian understands the government will look at all crossbench amendments and that “nothing is off the table”.

The government’s intense lobbying of One Nation and Centre Alliance at the weekend came as 10 employer groups on Monday will demand the Senate crossbench pass the government’s industrial relations bill.

The Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Industry Group, Master Builders Australia and National Farmers Federation are among those calling for senators “to put the national interest first” and pass the bill this week.

In a joint statement, the employer organisations said there was no valid reason for delaying the bill. “A failure to vote on the bill will increase uncertainty and stifle business confidence at the worst possible time — just before the JobKeeper scheme ends and as businesses are making critically important decisions on whether to retain staff,” they said.

“Employers have not got all they would want. There are components of the bill addressing ­issues raised by unions that we would under normal circumstances strongly oppose. This is not an employers’ bill but a sensible compromise employers and their workforces can work with.”

The business groups said Australia was “only part way through an uncertain recovery from the most severe peacetime shock since the Great Depression” and the workplace policy changes would “boost jobs, investment and confidence”.

Acting Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash will meet One Nation senators Malcolm Roberts and Pauline Hanson on Monday to discuss the crossbench party’s list of demands, which includes more than 12 amendments.

While Centre Alliance senator Stirling Griff is yet to formally outline specific requests to the government, he wants workers to have a greater ability to have disputes with employers arbitrated by the Fair Work Commission.

With Labor set to vote against the industrial relations legislation, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the employer groups were demanding the bill be passed “because it would permanently give them more power to make jobs ­insecure and keep wages low”.

“It is pure self-interest,” she said. “This bill is not balanced and not supported by working people. Unfortunately the big business lobby is using the pandemic to demand changes that will allow them to further game the system and are threatening to punish workers if they don’t get what they want.”

The government has listed the bill in the Senate program for Tuesday but a decision to bring it to a vote will depend on negoti­ations with crossbenchers.

Senator Cash, along with government leader in the Senate Simon Birmingham and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston, were in contact with crossbenchers at the weekend, and will continue lobbying in coming days.

One Nation’s amendments were across the bill’s five areas — casuals, modern awards, enterprise agreements, greenfield agreements, and compliance.

Senator Griff last week said he believed it was “unlikely” the bill would pass this week.

A spokesman for Senator Cash said the government was committed to following the “collaborative approach adopted since the pandemic began”.

The Australian understands that before going on leave, Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter had been in the early process of consultation with crossbenchers and no support had been locked in. The government is expected to guillotine debate on the legislation to increase pressure for a Senate vote and fast-track its passage through the upper house.