... Business Council of Australia president Michael Chaney said the ads were a direct response to ACTU ads depicting bosses plotting to disadvantage their employees. From ‘Campaign backlash feared’ by Steven Scott, The Australian Financial Review, 10 August 2007, p. 14.

The coalition of business groups, which includes the Business Council of Australia, insists its campaign of television, newspaper and billboard ads is driven by good economic policy, and not by partisan politics.  From ‘Rates “to Rise Again if IR Laws Scrapped”’ by Brad Norington and Matthew Franklin, The Australian, 10 August 2007, p. 1.

Leveraging fears about job security has been the power of the ACTU’s campaign against Work Choices, which has been described by Business Council of Australia president Michael Chaney as one of the most disingenuous, misleading and mischievous campaigns ever perpetrated in Australia. As The Australian reports today, an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry study estimates that if Labor persists with its promise to unwind what has been a continuous reform of workplace laws since the Hawke–Keating years, there will be a dramatic impact on household incomes, job security and interest rates. The BCCI report estimates unwinding the reforms started by the Keating Labor government in 1993 would cut GDP by 4.8 per cent, reduce business investment by $11 billion a year, cost 316,000 jobs and push interest rates up by 1.4 percentage points.  From editorial titled ‘Can’t Pay the Home Loan without a Job’, The Australian, 10 August 2007, p. 17.

Focus groups had concluded the campaign was “aimed squarely at issues of policy” and did not have a party political flavour, Business Council of Australia president Michael Chaney said. “We have found that the advertisement did resonate with the public,” he said. From ‘Business Splits on IR Ads’, The Australian Financial Review, 9 August 2007, p. 3.

‘The advertisements, funded entirely by business, aim to provide the facts about workplace reform. In particular they highlight its importance over the past two decades in supporting the level of prosperity Australia enjoys, and the dangers to jobs and investment if workplace reform is unwound’. From op-ed by Michael Chaney, ‘Injection of Facts into the IR Debate’, The Australian, 9 August 2007, p. 14.

Big business has taken the unprecedented step of direct intervention in the federal election campaign with expensive advertisements warning of danger to the economy if the Howard Government’s workplace laws are dismantled. A coalition of 19 business groups launched a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign yesterday under the banner “Let’s keep workplace reform”. From ‘Business Ads Warn on Ditching Work Laws’, The Australian, 9 August 2007, p. 8.  

The ad spruiks the benefits of industrial relations reform “over the past two decades” for employment, flexibility and productivity, but warns of a return to old days, “a system designed in 1904”. From ‘Business Insists Its Workplace Ads Are Not Political’, The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 3; ‘Big Business to Bankroll IR Ad Campaign’ by Michael Bachelard and Misha Schubert,  The Age, 9 August 2007, p. 7.

‘… business alliance represented 350,000 employers employing more than 4.5 million people. It includes Business Council of Australia, Minerals Council, Australian Hotels Association, Restaurant and Catering Australia, National Retail Association and all state employer chambers. The campaign stresses wage rises and low unemployment. From ‘Business Mounts IR Attack’, The Advertiser, 9 August 2007, p. 2.

[Michael Chaney]: ‘They believe this is a very valid way for business to be speaking out on the issue, that the message it conveys about the link between workplace flexibility and economic prosperity is an important message. And importantly, by the way, also that they don’t see the ads as political.’ Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 8 August 2007

Business Council Australia president Michael Chaney said the union advertisements amounted to scaremongering. “People are concerned. They’re confused about it and we've come to the view another alternative voice needs to be heard. So, that’s why we are doing something now.” Australian Associated Press, 8 August 2007

Read more about the Business Coalition for Workplace Reform campaign.