Tony Burke presses David Pocock for his crucial support on IR bill

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke told supporters of ACT senator David Pocock that the government’s industrial relations reforms needed to pass the Senate in full.

David Pocock in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: Sarah Ison

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke told supporters of ACT senator David Pocock that the government’s industrial relations reforms needed to pass the Senate in full to address cost-of-living stresses.

Piling pressure on the final vote Labor needs to pass the bill in the parliament, Mr Burke told a town hall event organised by Senator Pocock that there was “urgency” in passing the entire bill to turn around low wage growth, insecure work and the gender pay gap.

“You don’t get a shift in wages for those people unless legislation is passed, and the longer it takes the longer it will be to get their wages moving,” he told the event in Canberra.

Senator Pocock holds the key vote for the bill to pass, with the Greens all but confirming their support for the legislation.

However, the ACT senator has raised serious concerns over the bill, including its multi-employer bargaining, single interest stream, and the definition of small business.

Hairdressers, doctors, retail workers, conservationists and unionists all listened keenly from their seats in the auditorium during Senator Pocock’s third town hall event since being elected in May.

Mr Burke said he had been in “respectful and professional” discussions with Senator Pocock, but acknowledged he “wasn’t there yet” on supporting the bill.

“The most controversial part is how we deal with multi-employer bargaining,” he said.

He said multi-employer bargaining was the “only way in” for people on medium incomes if their employers weren’t coming to the table on enterprise agreements.

“By allowing businesses to bargain together, you create … an industry standard being established,” he said.

Mr Burke was asked by the audience whether the parts of the bill that had consensus could pass this year and others could be carved out and dealt with later.

He said the government was “in the hands of the Senate” with changes being made. But he stressed “the urgency” of passing the whole bill because of cost-of-living stresses.

Senator Pocock said he was “keen to hear the thoughts” of his constituents on the industrial relations reforms. “It’s the biggest changes we’ve seen since the Fair Work Commission was legislated,” he said. “The vast majority of this bill I support. We absolutely have to get wages moving. There’s a bunch of measures in this bill that if they were in the Senate on Monday I would vote for them.”

He said one of his “big concerns” was the timeline, which he said wasn’t long enough. He also pointed to the number of workers on enterprise agreements going down, and the need to reverse that through legislative change.

It comes as big business continues to voice their opposition to the bill and especially the multi-employer bargaining provisions, with Rio Tinto on Wednesday telling the inquiry into the proposed laws that it had “significant concerns”. It followed Qantas asserting it would need to slash existing marginal flight routes should the laws pass.