Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

It was really interesting last night to see Kevin Andrews's preformance on Lateline with Tony Jones. Andrews was directly asked twice whether the new laws are fairer and simpler. He did not say "yes" to this question either time it was asked.

If the Government can spend $55 million telling us that these laws will be fairer and simpler before the Bill goes to parliament, surely the Minister responsible can say that of the Bill now! If not, the gouging of public money to fund the advertising campaign was a fraud.

Margo: Hi Guy. The Govt pulped thousands of their booklets to citizens to add "fairer" to "simpler", remember? Here's the exchange last night - I too thought it was telling (Howard also avoided several Labor questions in Parliament on where the word 'fair' appeared as a criteria for setting minimum wages in the legislation, apart from the name of the "Fair Pay Commission', of course):

TONY JONES: Alright, let's move on. The legislation is meant to make working easier and fairer, is that the case?

KEVIN ANDREWS: The legislation is about trying to ensure that we have a strong economy. If we have a strong economy, then there will be more jobs, you've got a better prospect that Australians are going to see an increase in their wages.

TONY JONES: OK, but we keep hearing the word 'easier' and we keep hearing the word 'fairer', that's a fairly legitimate way of describing what you're attempting to do, isn't it?

KEVIN ANDREWS: We're attempting to say, as many others in the past, even Bill Keelty back in the early 1990s, who said the only way we're going to ensure future productivity and, therefore, future economic growth is by people making agreements and coming to arrangements about their workplace arrangements at the workplace level.

The Business Council of Australia has made some very interesting comments about the track record of the Howard Government. It is a frightening story of government tentacles reaching out and strangling us all. See here:

Regulation is truly Australia's growth industry. Our parliaments have become regulation factories, producing more laws and red tape than at any time in our history. Regulation is now growing at 10 per cent a year - three times the economic growth rate. More pages of legislation have passed the Commonwealth Parliament in the 14 years between 1990 and 2004 than in the preceding 90 years. The federal and state parliaments added 33,000 pages of new law to the statute and rule books in 2003. OECD estimates say the Australian small business sector is groaning under compliance costs of more than $17 billion a year. Manufacturers are shouldering some $680 million of costs every year just to meet regulatory compliance obligations. Overseas experience suggests that a figure of 8 per cent of Australia's GDP soaked up by red tape and compliance costs is not an unreasonable estimate.

If Howard was really serious about making Australian business more competitive it would spend its time and money, cutting red tape, saving Australian business billions of dollars a year. Instead, it chooses to attack the lowest paid and weakest in our community.

Our country is run by a politician who has no vision for Australia and believes his job is to screw the individual so big business can make even more profit. We are wasting enormous amounts of money and time and will gain nothing.

Laws and regulations are the targets that we should be cutting not wages. We are over governed by fools; today’s politicians have no ideas for the kind of society we should be trying to develop. Their eyes are always on the rear vision mirror, never looking at the road ahead.

It is only a matter of time before we smash into one of the road blocks in front of us. Climate change, Peak Oil, Bird Flu, Mass migration, Chinese/Indian political and economic growth, US economic failure, aging population, these are some of the real opportunities and threats we face.

If we looked out 10 to 15 years we would see that we cannot afford to concentrate our political efforts on such follies as turning the IR clock back 100 years, or the hopeless thought that you can prevent terrorism by acts of parliament.

The proposed IR laws are truly a "Dog's breakfast" and it is a shame on our parliment, that we are wasting so much time and effort on such shabby legislation.

Kevin Andrews says: "making agreements and coming to arrangements about their workplace arrangements".

Well yes, isn't that what we already do and have been for a hundred years? This guy presents this legislation as though it's revolutionary. It's voodoo economics at its worst and no different than what the USA has been pursuing under the Republicans for the last four years. But the US can carry a large underclass of working poor, as odious and unfair as that is. With our tiny population it will be a disaster. These guys are straight out of the trees when it comes to preparing Australia for the real problems we face under globalisation. The best they can come up with is a way to drive down wages. They're economic vandals who blindly believe their puritan work ethic ideology is the answer.

From the office of Senator Steve Fielding

Media release
SF/20. Wednesday November 9, 2005

Federal Government bans states from allowing people to get paid on public holidays

Not only is the Federal Government removing guarantees that all workers will be paid on public holidays, it is banning the states from allowing people to get paid for them.

Under the government's changes, State and Territory Governments will be able to introduce laws to declare public holidays, but not ensure people get paid for taking them.

What is the point of allowing State and Territory Governments to nominate public holidays if workers do not get paid for them? So much for the Prime Minister insisting public holidays such as Anzac Day and Melbourne Cup Day are "sacrosanct".

Under the workplace legislation, section 7C(3)(f) allows State and Territory Governments to legislate for "the observance of a public holiday, except the rate of payment of an employee for the public holiday."

The Federal Government has a choice. Either it ensures that people get paid for public holidays or it lets the states do so.

But the Federal Government should not remove guarantees that all workers will be paid for public holidays and then stop the states from doing it.

Australians did not elect the Howard Government so they would be forced to bargain for paid public holidays which they already enjoy. These changes undermine family life and I will be moving amendments to ensure workers are not docked pay because they do not work on public holidays.

Given the soothing Business Council of Australia commercials and the government's commercials – all waxing lyrical about the new world of employer/employee co-operation – it's absolutely intriguing that none of the main "talking heads" (Kevin Andrews, Peter Hendy and the Prime Minister) have addressed an issue at the heart of the difficulties business faces. Workcover.

Not one of these crusaders for the right of business to go about trading as unfettered as possible have mentioned the entirely cumbersome, punitive and incompetent worker's compensation regimes that business must contend with. As many different schemes as there are States and Territories. And if that isn't enough, schemes which undergo more make-overs than society divas in Melbourne prior to "Cup week."

If the object here was to clear away those infernal layers of regulation so pinning business down, then I'd have thought the various Workcovers were the ideal Commonwealth "taken over" target. You know, remove the layers of costly insurance complexity; one system administered by a single entity. Possibly a "Real Compo Commission": the one stop shop that can assess, manage the return to work and – if the injury is deemed "for real" – put you into the hands of Centrelink and straight onto "Welfare to Work." All with employers unencumbered and going about their business.

Much easier to sideline the union movement I suspect. Imagine the vested business interests in the various insurance regimes. Hmmm…