Page 3442 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 September 2005
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reduces the role of some union officials because people have an arrangement that they are happy with and they do not have the secret knowledge of awards that is lost on the average worker or employer. But, in fact, we are seeing 13 per cent more earned by people on those arrangements. This is a great achievement. It is something that has benefited many households in Australia, which is why our country is at the level of prosperity that it is today.
Of course, the ALP’s policy would abolish AWAs and force workers back into the anachronistic award system. It would reduce the take-home pay of thousands of workers. It is an ironclad guarantee that the ALP’s policy would, in effect, cut the wages of workers currently on AWAs. It is an approach none of us can entertain, which certainly has no relevance in this era. Employees cannot be forced onto agreements. That is something that needs to be said on the record. In fact, it will continue to be unlawful to force employees into new agreements. If a worker does not like what is on offer, they can opt to stay on their current arrangements. A strong inspection service will exist to assist workers who believe they are not being paid their appropriate entitlements. So there is safety and assurance there that people will indeed have their rights protected, despite the mischievous and misleading campaign that the ACTU and, unfortunately, a few of my colleagues opposite have lent their support towards.
Let us look at some of the ALP’s claims—ALP doom saying. Let us take a little trip down memory lane at some of their claims and predictions. Exactly the same predictions of doom and gloom that are currently being made by unions in the Labor Party were made by the same suspects in 1996 when the workplace system was last updated.
Mr Seselja: It has been terrible since then, hasn’t it?
MR MULCAHY: Absolutely, Mr Seselja. Let us look at what happened. What did they predict? I will quote what the current shadow IR minister, Stephen Smith, claimed in 1995. He said:
The Howard model is quite simple. It is all about lower wages; it is about worse conditions; it is about a massive rise in industrial disputation; it is about the abolition of safety nets; and it is about pushing down or abolishing minimum standards.
He went on to say that:
As a worker, you have lots of doubts about these things you might have lost, but you can be absolutely sure of one thing: John Howard will reduce your living standards.
Then that other gentleman who is in the news at lot lately, Mr Beazley, in 1996 warned that:
The Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Bill strikes at the heart of the desire by all Australians for a fair as well as a productive society.
He went on to say:
If we pass this bill into law we will return the workplace to the battleground it used to be.
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