Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on ABC’s Radio National the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia,which has agreed to explore multi-employer bargaining with the Australian Council of Trade Unions,said it could assist its members.
Asked whether the system would be opt-in or compulsory,Albanese said discussions about the detail of the reforms would be had in advance of the legislation being drafted. “We don’t seek to impose changes,what we seek to do is to have discussions,” he said.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke is seeking to introduce legislation by the end of the year,a tight timeframe when parliament sits for only four weeks after the October 25 budget.
Lambie said she needed to meet with the government over the proposed changes to the Fair Work Act,“and,therefore,we’re going to need time to do this”.
“And if they think they’re going to rush it through before Christmas-time,they’ve got to be bloody dreaming,” she said.
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Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor said the government’s plan on multi-employer bargaining risked a return to 1970s-style spiralling inflation.
“We’ve seen this before,it’s not new. We understand what happens if you go down this path. Labor seems determined to go down this path,and Australians will pay the price,” he said.
A debate over the ABCC will resume on Monday,as Coalition industrial relations spokeswoman Michaelia Cash’s move to block the removal of the building code is argued in the Senate.
Thegovernment has wound back many powers of the ABCC,which unions criticised as a politicised body installed by the Coalition,but its abolition as a statutory body will need to pass through both houses of parliament.
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“It’s been really unfortunate that they believe in their own right that they can actually abolish[it]. Much of that they’ve already done and reduced it to absolutely nothing,which has been quite disgusting in itself without open discussion and conversation about that,” Lambie said.
“So,it seems to me that if the Labor Party keeps going the way it is,then you might as well rebrand itself and call itself the union party,because that’s exactly where we’re heading.
“You said you were going to be open to consultation. They were going to be open to transparency and accountability,it’s now three months in and we’ve started to go down the gurgler with that.”