We thank the Fair Work Commission (the Commission) for the opportunity to make this submission as part of the Modern Awards Review 2023–24 (the Review)1.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) represents more than 120 of Australia’s largest businesses, employing over a million Australians. The BCA works to ensure Australia is economically strong to support a fair, free, and inclusive society. Achieving this requires successful, well-run businesses that create meaningful jobs and inclusive work environments which reflect and are accountable to the broader Australian community.

The BCA seeks to ensure:

• Australians have access to safe, high-paying, sustainable jobs that reward people for their hard work and experience.
• Work can bring out the best in people, giving them access to new opportunities and enabling them to collaborate with employers to create a positive and rewarding work environment.
• Australian workplaces are responsive to the future of work, enable innovation, ingenuity, and collaboration, and offer clear reward for effort.

Australia’s workplace relations system:

• Offers tools to tackle productivity challenges head on while empowering and protecting workers.
• Focuses on driving enterprise-level innovation and ingenuity, which will lead to job creation.
• Is a source of national competitive advantage.

You can read our full submission here.