Business comes out fighting in support of Howard

By Lenore Hankinson

Employer groups have heeded John Howard's call to arms and are digging deep to counter the very effective Your Rights at Work advertisements with an "information/awareness" advertising campaign of their own, in support of WorkChoices.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Business Council of Australia will release the campaign, currently being developed by a public relations company and being tested with focus groups. They also have the approval of the Minerals Council, a strong supporter of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) in the mining industry, and the Master Builders Association Australia, strong supporters of the repressive legislation and activities of the Australian Building Construction Commission.

Workforce Australia says that member companies have been asked to contribute upwards from $500. In Western Australia it was anticipated that contributions would come mainly from the non residential building sector. Subscriptions would be based on willingness to pay.

Disingenuously, Master Builders Association Western Australia Executive Director Michael McLean says that the decision to support an information campaign "was not taken lightly" considering they are an "apolitical organisation".

The broad proposition being put in the ads will be that if the labour law changes of the past 13 years are overthrown then the Australian economy will be under threat and with it the Australian standard of living. Apparently Australian productivity increases can only be achieved through the creation of an underclass of working poor.

What remains to be seen will be the economic effects of the Welfare to Work legislation and its interface with WorkChoices.

A secret Howard Government brief leaked recently revealed a research project to investigate moving almost one million low income earners off awards and onto Australian Workplace Agreements.

The brief also revealed modelling that suggests a future Coalition Government would continue to push for all public sector workers to be moved onto AWAs and dismantle state legislation that has insulated teachers, nurses, police and other public servants from the effects of WorkChoices.

The industry groups are claiming the campaign is not partisan because they include the Keating era's shift to enterprise bargaining as one of the building blocks of labour deregulation. The fact that WorkChoices goes much further than any Labor proposal in denying the right to collectively bargain puts into sharp focus the difference between the two industrial relations policies. The message that the Howard Government's labour laws have gone too far has deep resonance with working families. The business sector is ratcheting up its support for the Coalition's industrial relations laws at a time when the Labor party seems more vulnerable to lobbying around a scare campaign based on fear of "union bosses". As one union wit put it: "Last time I looked, union leaders were democratically elected, unlike employers."

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey has also revealed that the Government will be raiding the public purse to support more ads in support of changes to WorkChoices. They will be released after the legislation for the sham "fairness" test has been passed.

Lenore Hankinson is an Industrial Officer.

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Last Modified: 21 Jun 2007