Big business has to much power, says voters

Marginal seat voters also back employees and labour hire workers being paid the same when doing the same job.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus says new polling shows voters do not trust business. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Two-thirds of voters polled across 15 marginal seats believe big business has too much power, and support employees and labour hire workers being paid the same if doing the same job, new ACTU-commissioned polling has found.

According to the Essential Research polling of 1216 voters, 64 per cent of those surveyed believed large businesses have too much power, compared to 59 per cent who held that view in July.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the polling in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania showed the public did not believe the business groups, which have spent millions of ­dollars opposing the government’s industrial relations bill. 

“The Australian public understand that this legislation delivers better rights for workers,” Ms McManus said.

“Big business has spent tens of millions of dollars to influence politicians not to pass changes that are widely supported by the public.

“This research shows that Australians don’t trust big business and they see through the lies they have been peddling simply to protect their profits.”

The ACTU polling came as the opposition on Monday failed to progress four crossbench bills carving out less contentious elements of the bill through the House of Representatives.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black accused the government of seeking to block a lower house vote on the carved-out measures because it knew the broader bill was “too toxic” to stand alone.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke accused the ­Coalition of “hypocrisy on steroids” because it had decided to filibuster rather than seek to deal with the issue quickly.

The bills did not come on for a vote and it is unclear when or if they would. Employer groups on Monday night wrote a joint letter to lower house MPs urging them to vote to support the bills

The ACTU-commissioned research follows last week’s survey of 2000 businesses by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which found two-thirds of those surveyed were concerned the bill’s casual ­employ­ment changes would damage their operations.

The Essential polling did not specifically canvas the casual changes but questioned participants about their views on proposed labour hire and wage theft provisions.

Eighty per cent agreed on measures that protected workers from wage theft, up from 73 per cent in July, and 65 per cent agreed that employees and labour hire workers should be paid the same if they were doing the same jobs, up from 56 per cent in July.

Forty-seven per cent agreed it was unfair that big business used labour hire to pay some less than others for doing the same job as a way of cost-cutting.

Thirty-two per cent agreed that big business needed the flexibility to employ labour hire to create jobs, increase productivity and ensure healthy profits.

Sixty-two per cent agreed the government should regulate the gig economy more to ensure that gig workers were entitled to the same work rights as other workers, up from 51 per cent in July.

Ms McManus said Australians voted for a Labor government to get wages moving and deliver fairer workplaces.

“Peter Dutton and the ­Coalition are opposing assistance for working families. They are on the side of big business and will not support legislation that helps working people to get better wages and have better, safer workplaces,” she said.

“Big business will do and say anything to delay or stop these laws. Every day of delay saves them money and costs working people. Working Australians need support now; this should be the priority of all politicians”.