Liberals need the ticker to take on hard reforms

This was published 4 years ago

Liberals need the ticker to take on hard reforms

If ever there was a political opportunity to start the rebalancing of Australia's labour market, this is it.

If Australia once again wants to have an unemployment rate down to 4 per cent or less, as happened in 2007 under the Coalition's labour market reform, then this is the year to make a start.

Minister for Employment Michaelia Cash says that the government will not lurch to the right when it announces its policy for the July election. But no one is suggesting anything radical. It's hard enough to get the Coalition to talk about reform, let alone actually engage in real reform.

At least it's likely Cash will do better than Abbott's infamous "dead, buried and cremated" workplace policy in 2010. But that's not saying much. The promise not to lurch to the right is vacuous. It means nothing unless it means the government is going to do very little. If it means that individual agreements were too right-wing (whatever that means), then the 1.5 million Australians who used individual agreement were mistaken. The evidence is to the contrary. The use of individual agreements was one factor in the huge lift in living standards for all Australians as the resource sector used individual agreements to take advantage of demand for Australia's resources sector in China. This was especially true for Western Australia and it would be news to that state if individual agreements were anything other than a great success.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash at a truck rally at Parliament House.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash at a truck rally at Parliament House.Credit:Andrew Meares

What will be announced will be either an important step in the right direction or just another failure to push for sensible reform.

The sad reality is that the Liberal leadership has been scared witless about labour market reform. When the Coalition lost office in 2007, it abandoned any willingness to counter Labor. It left the field to the unions and in particular the militant unions who have been running amok ever since, as seen in the Dyson royal commission. Abbott and his colleagues had forgotten that in 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2004, the electorate had given the Howard government an overwhelming mandate for a labour market far more flexible than the pro-union environment today. This explains the continuing support from people like John Howard and the business community to rebalance today's system.

The good thing about the royal commission is that it has exposed the problems. The voters will support reform but only if they are convinced that the government will follow through. The public supported waterfront reform in 1997 but not the Fraser government in the 1980s. Howard had the ticker for leadership and went from strength to strength, but Malcolm Fraser left office with many disappointed.

The government has already made workplace relations a key part of their campaign. It can't now walk away from industrial relations reform, nor should it do so. It needs to take the contest up to Labor. And it has the advantage of a longer campaign than usual.

But to do well on industrial relations, the government needs to do more to put its case.

Obviously the government is right to press for the passage of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations bill. They are part of the case. But the case needs to be wider.

First, the findings of the Dyson royal commission should be in the pocket of every MP. Second, there should be a long list of reforms on matters such as union entry on sites, unfair dismissal and many others. This is essential for a mandate for the next term.

The government should run harder on militant unions and the truckies dispute. You can imagine the support the TWU will be giving to the ALP to ensure that Shorten will repeal the repeal and make 35,000 truckies go broke.

Workplace reform is an essential component of a stronger economy. The Howard years demonstrated that economic reform can make a big difference in living standards. Productivity rose from a trend rate of 1.75 per cent to 3.1 per cent under the Coalition from 1996. It is the outcome needed if Australia is to lift living standards again.

But policy is not the only issue facing the government. Personality plays a role in politics. So it is good that Tony Abbott may be ready to accept that the loss of his premiership was as much by his own hand as anything else. He certainly needs to work with his colleagues to win the forthcoming election and he needs to dissuade some of his supporters from unhelpful commentary.


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