Western Australia’s top politician and its most respected business leader have locked horns over economic and industrial relations reform. Mark Beyer reports.
PREMIER Geoff Gallop has come out swinging in defence of his government’s record on economic and industrial relations policy, and in the process incurred the wrath of incoming Business Council of Australia president Michael Chaney.
Dr Gallop hosted a press conference last week to rebut persistent criticism of his government’s failure to tackle militant unions and to reaffirm his staunch opposition to individual workplace agreements.
In the process, Dr Gallop showed that he speaks a different language to the business sector and has little empathy for business issues, focusing instead on issues like quality of life, fairness and support for the vulnerable.
Nonetheless, he argued that he was upholding the middle ground.
“In the current situation, where you’ve got the extremism of John Howard obviously creating fear and uncertainty in the workplace, it’s not an easy time for those who sit in the centre of politics,” he said.
“But we’ll maintain our position to make sure the extremism of John Howard is fought against and make sure where trade unions come up with unacceptable demands, we’ll hold the line in the centre.”
Dr Gallop was particularly critical of the use of Australian Workplace Agreements.
“Their design is clear, and they are aimed at pushing down wages and conditions, particularly for the vulnerable in our society,” he said.
“The cat was let out of the bag when the head of the Business Council of Australia, Michael Chaney, said there shouldn’t be any fairness factors taken into account in the labour market.
“Well, I’m sorry. I’m a Labor premier, I don’t believe that.”
Mr Chaney, who retired recently as managing director of Wesfarmers and is expected to succeed Hugh Morgan as president of the Business Council in October, was scathing in his response.
“That’s fairly typical of the State Government’s approach; that they take comments like that out of context,” said Mr Chaney, who is known to be measured in his choice of words.
“It’s disappointing when they put out simplistic and misleading comments.”
Mr Chaney, who is a director of BHP Billiton and will become chairman of National Australia Bank next month, said fairness was very important.
“I’m on the record many times as saying fairness is very important, it’s just a question of how you achieve that,” he said.
He believes governments should use tax and spending policies to achieve fairness goals, and allow the workplace relations system to focus on efficiency goals.
“In the past, governments tried to use workplace relations policy as an instrument to achieve fairness. It turned out to be a very blunt instrument,” he said.
“With rigidities in the centralised system, you ended up with higher unemployment.”
Mr Chaney said the reality in Australia was that union membership was falling and working arrangements were changing, with a trend towards independent contracting
“I just see the stance of the unions and the Labor Government as a last-ditch stand against the inevitable,” he said.
Mr Chaney also said labour market deregulation, including the use of AWAs, had provided a big boost to efficiency and productivity, and claims to the contrary “flies in the face of the evidence”.
Dr Gallop last week passionately reaffirmed his opposition to AWAs.
In defence of this stance, he referred to an incident in South Australia where a worker on an AWA was being paid “well below the minimum conditions of the award”.
He also said the ACTU had identified 50 AWAs that pay below the minimum award.
Dr Gallop confirmed that he personally intervened last week in Western Power’s wage negotiations to stop the utility using AWAs.
“I phoned up the chairman of Western Power (Neil Hamilton) and made it absolutely clear that the government of WA had a policy opposed to AWAs,” he said.
When asked about the productivity and efficiency gains that could flow from the use of AWAs, Dr Gallop said:
“I’m interested in the productivity and efficiency of our families.”
He then talked about quality of life, working hours, and support for working women as what he saw as important.
Dr Gallop also sought to play down the significance of recent industrial troubles, including the outbreak of ‘blue flu’ on construction sites and the wages dispute involving Western Power.
“Put these events in a proper perspective. Yes, blue flu is unacceptable. Yes, unreasonable wage demands are unacceptable. In the total context of Western Australia today, we are doing very well,” he said.
The Premier’s comments on ‘blue flu’ come after much stronger criticism by Health Minister and former union leader Jim McGinty.
“Sick leave is there for when you are sick,” he said last week.
“It is not something that should be abused.
“I think if people are abusing the system, they are threatening the entire future of the union movement in WA and they should stop.”
Dr Gallop believes many commentators have failed to acknowledge the state’s excellent economic performance.
“You get the feeling when you read the daily newspaper that Western Australia is being run down,” he said.
“Western Australia is the strongest state, with 30 per cent of the nation’s investment, $15.8 billion of business investment in the last 12 months and an unemployment rate at or below five per cent over the last 12 months.
“That’s the truth about Western Australia today.”
When asked to nominate the government’s main contributions to the state’s impressive economic performance, Dr Gallop’s response shone a revealing light on his perspective.
The first point he nominated was “massive infrastructure investment”.
Despite problems with power and water supplies, port congestion, planning delays and project approvals over the past four years, Dr Gallop claimed his government had overcome “a huge number of logjams that were in the system in 2001”.
The second big contribution he named was reform of the system of public sector administration in WA.
“It’s acknowledged by all in the business sector that we now are much more open and transparent and efficient in what we do,” he claimed.
The third point Dr Gallop named was out of left field and thus very revealing.
“Thirdly, and I stress this point; I go all over this state and I meet workers … the degree of enthusiasm they have now for living in a state that respects their rights and provides a proper system to protect occupational safety and health and matters like that, makes it a lot better for those workers to go to work every day.”
Dr Gallop has also defended his Workplace Relations Minister, John Kobelke, who has been criticised as being ineffectual in dealing with militant unions.
“I’ve got total confidence in John Kobelke,” the Premier said.
“John Kobelke has taken through the Parliament labour relations legislation that has re-established fairness in the labour market.
“He has taken through comprehensive workers’ compensation reforms and, thirdly, he has toughened up the system of occupational safety and health.
“He has done that job, I think, very, very well.”
