The Economic Significance of WorkChoices

Coverage of BCA comment on the first anniversary of the WorkChoices legislation as reported in The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The West Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Business Council president Michael Chaney said: “All the evidence indicates that Work Choices has been a success to date and the predictions of the sky falling in and so on have come to nothing.” Although he admitted there was unease among the population about Work Choices, Mr Chaney said that was unjustified and predictions the package would be a nightmare had proved untrue. “Our view has been all along Work Choices was part of the evolution, not a revolution, started by Labor and continued by the Coalition. It’s just a sensible next step” he said.  

‘One Year On, IR Split Widens’ by Joseph Kerr & Samantha Maiden, The Australian, 27 March 2007, p. 1.

The Business Council of Australia supports the retention of AWAs but has been pushing for Labor to keep a streamlined system of industrial awards while limiting the expansion of the number of legislated minimum employment conditions.

‘Business Urges Labor to Go Soft on IR’, by Mark Skulley, Adrian Rollins & John Breusch, The Australian Financial Review, 27 March 2007, p. 1.

“The real concern is if you start turning the clock back, you’ll affect the workplace culture, you’ll get back to a them-versus-us situation and productivity will fall. That means lower wages, fewer jobs and higher inflation as people try to get wage increases in spite of productivity, and so on. It's just the last thing the economy can afford.”

From article by Chris Johnson and Amanda Banks titled ‘Chaney: IR Rollback Would Hurt Economy’, The West Australian, 27 March 2007, p. 4.

But the Business Council of Australia’s president, Michael Chaney, said scare campaigns that Work Choices would cut jobs and wages had proved unfounded. “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.

‘Poster Boy Reverses over Work Laws’ by Mark Davis, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 March 2007, p. 6.

‘Labor’s best strategy is to heed the views of business leaders such as Business Council of Australia president Michael Chaney that Work Choices is part of an evolution, not revolution, of reforms started by Labor and continued by the Coalition. It should promise to work to keep the reform bus moving forward, not throw it into reverse.’

From editorial titled ‘Keeping the Reform Bus Moving on IR’, The Australian, 27 March 2007, p. 15.

The Business Council’s Michael Chaney says WorkChoices gives business the tools it needs, but adds that employees benefit because they get jobs more quickly in an economic upturn, and lose them more slowly when the bust comes. And while deregulating the labour market has increased profits much faster than wages (the profit share of GDP is at an all-time high of 27.7 per cent), he says that also is a good thing: real wages are up, unemployment down, and higher profits mean more jobs.

‘New Weapons in the Workplace Revolution’ by Michael Bachelard and Meaghan Shaw, The Age, 26 March 2007, p. 6.