No Turning the Clock Back on Workplace Reforms

26 March 2007

The first anniversary tomorrow of the introduction of the federal government’s WorkChoices legislation has proved opponents of the vital reforms were wrong, Business Council of Australia President Michael Chaney said.
 
Mr Chaney said scare campaigns that WorkChoices reforms would slash jobs and wages have been proved unfounded by data showing 260,000 new jobs have been created and wages have grown by 1.8 per cent in real terms since the reforms were introduced.
 
“As we reach the one-year anniversary of the WorkChoices reforms one thing is obvious: opponents’ claims that the sky would fall in and Australian workers would suffer have not materialised,” Mr Chaney said.
 
“Fears about WorkChoices have proven to be as unfounded as those that accompanied previous reforms like tariff reductions, the floating of the dollar and earlier deregulation of the workplace.
 
“On the contrary, those earlier reforms created an environment of strong economic growth, high employment and increased real wages.
 
“There is no doubt that recent workplace reforms including the WorkChoices legislation will continue to contribute to improved productivity and job creation. It is vital that these reforms not be reversed so that Australia can maintain economic growth and its current level of prosperity in an increasingly competitive global market,” he said.
 
Mr Chaney said the BCA would next month release a set of reform standards that will outline the necessary conditions to elevate the country’s living standards into the world’s top five band by 2012.
 
The reform standards will be used to assess the policies of the political parties in the election year in terms of whether they will help Australia meet long-term growth objectives.
 
“As we have said, we can and should have ambitious goals if we are to continue to prosper into the future and reaching a top-five position is achievable if we maintain the pace of economic reform,” Mr Chaney said.
 
The BCA represents Australia’s leading 100 companies which in turn collectively employ nearly 1 million Australians and account for around $350 billion of the nation’s economic activity.
 
Mr Chaney said the BCA remained concerned about the direction of ALP policy on workplace relations following the release of its Draft Platform this month.
 
“We believe that workplace reform is inseparably linked to continued economic prosperity and must be embraced by any government or party concerned about the economy.
 
“While we want to see the detail of the ALP’s industrial relations policy to make a full assessment of its impact on the economy, we remain concerned that initial statements indicate that the ALP is tempted to follow union demands for re-regulation of the workplace and a return to rigid, anti-growth policies.
 
“Limiting the options available to the employer and employee to make agreements which suit both specific individual and business circumstances and severing the relationship between contribution and reward within each business is damaging for the economy.
 
“In addition, overregulation increases the cost for employers to hire or retain employees.  The best method of protecting our most vulnerable Australians is by ensuring that they have employment.  As shown by World Bank research, those most likely to be adversely impacted by rigid labour policies like those the unions are pursuing are the low skilled, labour intensive sectors which face increasing competition in global markets. 
 
“Business is determined to ensure Australia continues to move forward on industrial relations reform and does not return to the protectionist past when productivity and jobs growth were stifled,” he said.
 
For further information contact:
Scott Thompson, Manager, Media Relations, Business Council of Australia
Tel: (03) 8664 2664, mobile 0403 241 128