Industrial relations is shaping as a major electoral battlefield with the nation’s peak business lobby warning that Australia is taking “steps backward” under Labor’s new workplace rules and growing red tape.
In a speech to be delivered on Tuesday night, Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black will say that the government’s contentious workplace rules had left many chief executives, without naming names, “far, far more cautious” about hiring after they became operational on August 26.
The BCA’s members include miners, Telstra, Qantas and the four big banks, along with key agriculture entities, such as JBS Foods, the Woolworths Group, GrainCorp, Wesfarmers and Hancock Prospecting.
“And this underlines the point that for a good job to be well-paid, it has to exist first. Instead, we’re steadily increasing, not removing, regulation – making it harder to run a business,” he will say.
He said the situation means that, rather than feeling confident in a growing national prosperity, these leaders feel Australia is losing its way and “taking incremental-but noticeable-steps backwards”.
Farm leaders have also raised concerns about “a straight-up union power grab” since the rules were first flagged in 2022.
Meanwhile, Shadow Minister for Finance Jane Hume has flagged that a Coalition government would review laws introduced under the government’s Closing Loopholes Bill, to ensure they they are flexible for workers and employers, including the contentious Same Job Same Pay policy.
Senator Hume also said the Coalition would look to roll-back “regressive” multi-employer bargaining, scrap new definitions and rights for casual workers that “add complexity” and the new right to disconnect laws.
“We’ll be reviewing industrial relations laws to make sure that we improve the productivity of our economy,” she said.
“Quite frankly this is stuff that can be negotiated between an employer and an employee, these are unnecessary laws adding complexity to our system and wrapping up our big businesses and small businesses, but particularly our small businesses, in red tape that they simply cannot afford”.
The BCA have also pushed back on the same elements of the omnibus legislation, with Mr Black also to cite data that 1200 businesses declaring insolvency in July was evidence that the concerns of business were not all smoke and no fire.
“And the upshot is best illustrated by the fact that I now have members – major employers – who are now actively choosing to invest overseas rather than in Australia,” he plans to say.
While he will also take a shot at the Coalition’s plan to force the divestment of supermarket assets and the Greens so-called Robin Hood proposal to “impose even greater taxes on our success” as being potential triggers that will reduce the nation’s competitiveness.
However, Ms Hume’s comments drew fire from Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michelle O’Neil who flagged a pre-election industrial campaign to warn against any scrapping of the laws as a backward step for workers.
“Its not a scare campaign when youre telling working people the truth,” she said during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra.
“What is clear now is that they intend to take away the rights that workers fought for a long time to win.
“We’ll be telling them that if there was a change of government and a government led by Peter Dutton, then they would see the removal of rights for casual workers back into insecure work. Well be telling local people that thats what they intend to do.”
While Mr Black will also outline the BCA’s five-point pre-election manifesto, with the document focusing on easing cost-of-living and housing pressures, reaching net-zero 2050 with “reliable” energy, addressing care economy pressures and its IR plans, he said addressing the productivity plunge “is the only thing that really matters when it comes to improving long-term quality of life in this country”.
“It means less red tape and regulation. It means more flexible workplace laws. It means simpler planning systems. It means a more efficient tax system,” he said.
“Now, I’m not nave. I know these steps are challenging. Indeed, they’re painfully hard and come with electoral risk. But there are some steps that we should take, and take soon.”
Meanwhile, the latest industry sentiment report released by peak lobby group AUSVEG found half of vegetable, potato and onion growers surveyed indicated they were experiencing workforce shortages across full-time, part-time and casual positions, as well as skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled positions.
It also found 62 per cent of growers said the removal of the 88-day specified work requirement in regional areas from UK Working Holiday Maker visas could have a severe or critical impact on their business.
It also found labour comprises 38pc of the average grower’s costs and that changes to the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility Scheme had complicated operations.
Nationals leader David Littleproud said it was worrying that the overwhelming majority of farmers surveyed believed employment problems would remain the same or worsen into the future.
He also latched on to data contained in the report showing 50pc of growers believed they are financially worse off than they were in June 2023 and that 34pc could consider leaving the industry in the next year.
“This is a worrying sign amid a cost-of-living crisis. Families have cut back on discretionary spending but they still need to buy food,” he said.
