David Pocock rejects employer attacks over IR bill

The Senate crossbencher says he’s not in parliament to ‘do the bidding of big business’.

ACT Senator David Pocock. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Senate crossbencher David Pocock says he is not in parliament to “do the bidding of big business”, brushing off employer criticism of his agreement with the Albanese government on proposed industrial relations changes.

Business groups on Monday criticised Senator Pocock over the deal, accusing him of failing to extract adequate concessions from the government.

The concessions, which ensure the bill passes this week, include an increase in the number of small businesses excluded from multi-­employer bargaining ­and an annual evidence-based review into the ­adequacy of welfare payments.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said “politics is often a game of chicken and (Senator Pocock) has been the first one to blink”.

“What he’s gained in concessions from the government overall are more about welfare and less about the workplace,” Mr Willox told ABC television.

“The concern here has been more about the unemployed than the employed … he did stand before a group of employers from Ai Group last Monday, a week ago, and promised that there would be no trade-offs.”

Senator Pocock said rather than split the bill, he believed he had reached a point in negoti­ations where he was satisfied with the proposed outcome.

“I have been saying that where the bill stood when it was introduced, I wanted it split. In negotiations, and pushing the government, they were willing to come a lot further than I thought they would be and in the end, I’m really happy with where we have landed,” he told Sky News.

“I think it takes into account the urgent need to get wages moving for Australians who need it, with protections for small businesses; and with protections for not only small businesses under 20 (workers) who are totally excluded but for businesses that have less than 50; the onus is now on the unions to argue why (businesses) should be dragged into a multi-­employer agreement.”

He said businesses with fewer than 50 staff were very unlikely to have a HR department and he wanted to lessen the burden on these employers. “I think we have struck a good balance here. I am not in the Senate to do the bidding of big business, and them being unhappy on some of the measures in IR reform is probably not the worst thing. It means that we have probably landed in a decent position.”

He denied Mr Willox’s claim he had engaged in trade-offs, saying he kept negotiations focused on industrial relations, secured changes to the bill, and separately extracted the government commitment for the welfare payment review.

“It’s one thing to get wages for people who have jobs but in a tight labour market, the three million Australians who don’t, they are doing it tough. We are in one of the richest counties in the world. This is about priorities,” Senator Pocock said.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said the changes would see employers return to bargaining given the simplification of the better off overall test applied to pay deals.

Employers that did not want to be in multi-employer bargaining would return to enterprise bargaining, he said.