12 August 2007: Transcript of comments by BCA President Michael Chaney to the Sky News ‘Sunday Business’ program regarding the advertising campaign launched by the Business Coalition for Workplace Reform.
Compere: With all the opinion polls pointing to a change of government later this year, it would be reasonable to expect lobby groups to be hedging their bets.
Yet, this week, 19 influential associations launched a multi-million dollar media campaign in support of the Federal Government’s WorkChoices legislation. The groups include the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Retailers Association, and the Business Council of Australia. The Australian newspaper’s Michael West spoke with BCA President Michael Chaney.
Michael Chaney: Workplace reform has really been a key element in the prosperity of Australia, and the increase in prosperity in the last 20 years; and winding it back, without any doubt, will have a negative affect on the economy and on job creation.
Reporter: Will you be able to work with a Rudd and Swan government?
Michael Chaney: Well, you know, we live in a free society, and I think everybody is entitled to express their view. And I’m sure the Opposition appreciates that point. And, you know, I think it’d be remiss of business, if it’s highly concerned about this issue, of winding back reform, if it didn’t speak out. And I’m sure the, the people in the Opposition appreciate that.
Reporter: Of course. So, if the impact will be significant, if there is a wind-back, are you saying then that, that a Labor Government would be bad for the economy?
Michael Chaney: Well what we’re saying is that, I think people don’t appreciate the extent to which workplace reform has, has been a very positive factor in the prosperity that Australia now enjoys, and in the record low unemployment, and the record low number of strikes and so on. And winding it back is certainly going to have a negative affect on the economy, and without any doubt, will create unemployment. It’s exactly the opposite of what’s happened over the last 20 years. This program of reform started originally with a Labor Government, and was continued by the current government; and the changes that occurred two years ago, we saw just as another step in that progression. Winding back reforms would be a negative for the economy, without any doubt.
Reporter: Isn’t the global boom in commodities and the China, demand from China, more responsible for the conditions than the workplace reforms?
Michael Chaney: Well no, if you think about it, if you go back just three years, people weren’t talking about a global boom in the economy, in resources. We weathered the Asian storm at the end of the Nineties; we weathered the slow-down in the world economy at the start of this century, for one reason, and that is that we’d undertaken some very difficult reforms in, micro-economic reforms over the last 15 years, and it was those things that really enabled us to continue to grow and to establish what’s now a record period of growth in our economy. The boom in resources has just occurred in the last couple of years, and of course, that’s helped, you know, kick things along.
Reporter: Does the BCA really believe that under a Labor Government there’s a risk of a return to militant unionism?
Michael Chaney: Well, there’s a real risk if unions are given greater rights of entry to workplaces where they haven’t been welcome; if third parties are able to intervene in a process between employers and employees; and if we end up with levels of disputation that we saw when unions were more, more in control of the situation; and any policy or any legislation that allows those things to happen, runs the risk of creating that sort of situation again.
[end of comments relating to the Business Coalition for Workplace Reform].
Read more about the Business Coalition for Workplace Reform campaign.