Burke stares down employers over IR changes

The government has decided not to invite the construction lobby to a meeting of employers and unions.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke is staring down business attacks on Labor’s industrial relations changes, excluding the construction lobby from key talks, and accusing employers of running a “fear campaign”.

Mr Burke will meet the ACTU and employer representatives on Friday to give them a detailed briefing on the government’s proposed second wave of workplace policy changes, including its same job, same pay policy.

But the government has decided not to invite Master Builders Australia,- whose chief executive Denita Wawn has previously accused Labor of “sham consulting” to the meeting.

“Ms Wawn was incapable of working within the consultation processes of the previous government, let alone ours,” Mr Burke told The Australian.

Ms Wawn said it was “disappointing a decision had been made before basic procedural fairness, which ironically is one of the core elements of the Fair Work laws”. “We hope the government will continue to negotiate with us in good faith,” she said on Thursday.

During Question Time, Mr Burke attacked modelling released by the Minerals Council of Australia as part of its multimillion-dollar campaign against the industrial relations changes. The Minerals Council said the modelling revealed the alarming toll of a restrictive industrial relations agenda.

But Mr Burke said the council’s report did not model any aspect of the industrial relations changes, but “simply invented what it would look like if you took 1 per cent out of the economy, out of productivity”. Referring to attacks on the government’s first wave of industrial relations changes in 2022, he said the “fear campaigns last time were completely wrong, and the fear campaigns this time happen to be wrong again”.

Employers groups late on Thursday released a joint statement insisting they were united in their opposition to the workplace changes. “The Australian business community stands united in its broad opposition to the federal government’s proposals to remove flexibility and choice in the workplace, which will threaten jobs and investment, and undermine productivity,” they said

“The government simply hasn’t provided evidence of any substantial problem to be fixed.”

The statement was made by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, the Business Council of Australia, the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, Master Builders Australia, the Minerals Council of Australia, the National Farmers Federation and the Recruitment, Consulting & Staffing Association.

“The federal government is being disingenuous in implying its Same Job, Same Pay proposal is merely about “closing a loophole”, or that its ‘employee-like’ proposal will not lead to unprecedented interference in contracts,” they said. “This proposal is a radical, systemic reordering of the Workplace Relations system. It is a broad over-reach into Australian businesses, large and small, hurting contractors across all sectors …”