Anthony Albanese spruiks IR laws, as miners prepare election whack

Anthony Albanese is facing multimillion-dollar campaigns run by mining, business, building and industry groups, which attack union-backed IR laws and warn of damaging economic impacts.

Anthony Albanese at Sydney’s Norton St Festa on Sunday. Picture: NewsWire / Simon Bullard

You can now listen to The Australian's articles. Give us your feedback.

You can now listen to The Australian's articles.

Anthony Albanese is facing multimillion-dollar election campaigns run separately by mining, business, building and industry groups, which will attack union-backed industrial relations laws and warn of damaging economic and job impacts for voters.

The Australian understands the mining sector is preparing to replicate the success of a targeted Queensland Resources Council state election campaign, credited with helping the Liberal National Party dominate seats around Townsville, Cairns, Rockhampton and Mackay.

While campaigns being prepared ahead of next year’s election won’t be outwardly partisan, they will critique marquee Labor policies. The Minerals Council of Australia is also running an apolitical campaign designed to bust myths about nuclear power.

With Labor talking down chances of winning central and north Queensland seats at the next federal election following the LNP state election victory, the Prime Minister on Monday will deliver a speech in Brisbane defending the government’s IR reforms.

Speaking at the Mining and Energy Union national convention, Mr Albanese will seize on new MEU data claiming Labor’s same job, same pay laws facilitated more than $120m in pay rises for thousands of mining workers in NSW and Queensland.

Ahead of wage increases flowing from Friday for some miners, flight attendants, warehouse workers and meatworkers, Mr Albanese will rally MEU members’ support, which “will be critical to us winning the next election”.

Amid an ongoing war with mining companies over Labor’s sweeping IR reforms, a central plank of the resources sector’s election campaigns, Mr Albanese will reject claims that same job, same pay changes could “wreck the economy”.

“There was a whole chorus of condemnation from the usual suspects. The Liberals said it was a made-up issue – then they said it would wreck the economy. They weren’t the only ones outraged at the very idea of paying people the same wage for performing the same work,” Mr Albanese will say.

“I’m sure you remember the ads on high rotation, all kinds of bizarre comparisons and baseless claims, trying to distract from a very straightforward policy and an issue of simple fairness. We were not deterred – and Australians weren’t fooled.

“While there are some companies still fighting to keep these loopholes open so they can undercut wages and conditions, we all know that the biggest threat to fair pay and safe work is not any individual firm, it is the Liberal and National parties.”

In a highly political speech, Mr Albanese will accuse Peter Dutton of wanting to “rip up every new right workers have negotiated and … cut every pay rise your members have earned”.

After the success of QRC’s Keep Queensland Competitive campaign, focused on the impacts of state Labor’s coal royalty increases, resources sector groups will ramp up advertising ahead of the election amplifying the importance of LNG, coal and iron ore to regional economies, jobs and community infrastructure.

Senior LNP sources said the QRC largely flew under the radar but played a key role in swinging support away from Labor in central and north Queensland. The QRC spent most of its capped election expenditure in the regions on local television and social media platforms, which helped the LNP shift resources into southeast Queensland. The ads featured local farmers, apprentices, business owners, publicans, administrative officers and electrical engineers.

Regional federal Queensland seats previously held by Labor based around Rockhampton, Gladstone, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns, including Capricornia, Flynn, Dawson, Herbert and Leichhardt, are home to tens of thousands of resources workers.

In his speech, Mr Albanese will promise that Labor’s net-zero transition will benefit regional Australia and well-paid miners by ensuring that “town by town, worker by worker … no one is held back … and no one is left behind by economic change”.