Wed, 7th May 2008

Julie Bishop Doorstop - Treasury advice, Unemployment, ABCC and Maternity Leave

The Hon Julie Bishop MP
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
Shadow Minister for Employment, Business and Workplace Relations

Julie Bishop:

The Labor Government has been caught out trying to mislead the Australian people. Labor has been trying to spin an inflation crisis all the while hiding Treasury advice that its own industrial relations policies will drive up inflation and will cost jobs. Labor talks about fairness in the workplace but there is nothing fair about unemployment. Treasury advice says that Labor’s policies will cost jobs. I am concerned that working families will become welfare families under Labor’s industrial relations policies.

Journalist:

How relevant is a document written before Labor’s policy came out?

Julie Bishop:

This document took into account the key elements of Labor’s industrial relations policy, and that remain the policy. The Treasury advice focussed on the abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements and the return of the job-destroying unfair dismissal laws. The Treasury advice was based the key ingredients of Labor’s industrial relations policies which remain in place to this day. If Labor were serious about fighting inflation they would stop this rollback of the workplace relations reforms that had increased employment and held inflation at lower levels.

Journalist:

Isn’t it more important to know what Treasury advised after the policy was released?

Julie Bishop:

If Labor has advice that contradicts this advice they should release it. This is about people’s jobs and Labor has been caught trying to mislead the public by hiding Treasury advice that says Labor’s policies will drive up inflation and cost jobs.

Journalist:

Do you know where this report came from?

Julie Bishop:

No I don’t. I have not seen the document. It is Treasury advice and Labor has not denied that it is Treasury advice. The important thing is that both Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd have seen this advice and they have refused to release it to the Australian public.

Journalist:

Should Labor release the full analysis?

Julie Bishop:

The full analysis should be released. The document reported in The Australian today is a summary of Treasury advice and it says in no uncertain terms that Labor’s industrial relations policy will drive up prices, will drive up unemployment and fuel inflation.

Journalist:

Are you convinced that will be the case?

Julie Bishop:

Absolutely. This is what the Coalition has been saying, that Labor’s policies will harm jobs. This is all about Labor rewarding the unions for their $30 million scare campaign against workplace reform than it is about protecting jobs.

Journalist:

How bad do you think unemployment will get?

Julie Bishop:

This is a matter that the Rudd Government must reveal. They must release Treasury advice so the Australian public can judge just how bad the workplace relations laws under Labor will be for them. Treasury advice is that it will drive up prices, drive up unemployment and fuel inflation. Labor must come clean and admit their fight against inflation has a great big hole in it, because it is their own policies which will drive up inflation.

Journalist:

This morning Kevin Rudd said there will be savings of $1.7 billion from an efficiency dividend. Do you think that will help?

Julie Bishop:

That will make absolutely no difference to inflation or interest rate rises. What will be fundamental in fighting inflation is keeping workplace relations flexible and keeping labour markets flexible. That is why Kevin Rudd’s five point plan, so called, to fight inflation did not include workplace relations. They already had Treasury advice that their industrial relations policies will drive up inflation. The Rudd Government deliberately excluded workplace relations from its plan to fight inflation because its policies will drive up inflation.

Journalist:

How bad do you think unemployment will get under Labor?

Julie Bishop:

Well I would like to see the Treasury advice, which as reported in the media today said in no uncertain terms that Labor’s industrial relations policies will drive up unemployment. Now, under the Howard Government we were able to achieve real wage increases, we were able to achieve the highest employment in decades, and yet maintain inflation at a lower level. We now have Treasury advice that Labor’s industrial relations policies will drive up unemployment and drive up inflation.

Journalist:

What about other advice?

Julie Bishop:

I have seen other advice that came from Econtech and other economic analysts to the same effect – that Labor’s industrial relations policies will drive up unemployment. Labor dismissed that, but we now have the Government’s own economic advisers in Treasury telling the Government that its workplace relations laws will drive up unemployment and will cost jobs. Labor should halt its rollback of the reforms that increased employment and kept inflation low.

Journalist:

Are you concerned about constructions unions lobbying Labor to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission?

Julie Bishop:

The ABCC was formed on the recommendations of the Cole Royal Commission into the building and construction industry. That Royal Commission found instances of corrupt, illegal, threatening and intimidating behaviour on behalf of the construction union. The ABCC is the watchdog on the beat and if Labor rolls it back it will be disastrous for the construction industry and it will be disastrous for the Australian economy.

Journalist:

Looking to next year’s Budget, not this year’s, is that the time to bring in paid maternity leave?

Julie Bishop:

The Coalition is looking at the issue of paid maternity and parental leave, and we think that we need to have in place the initiatives to ensure that women are encouraged back into the workforce if that is what they wish to do after having a child. They need support for that transition back into work. But it must not be a cost to business otherwise it could discourage business from employing women rather than encourage them. We need to expand workforce participation amongst women and they do need support. We are looking at this policy as part of our policy review. I understand that the Government has commissioned a study by the Productivity Commission, which will not report until next February, so we won’t know the findings until next year.

Journalist:

Are you concerned that the wage increases for Victorian teachers could trigger a wages breakout?

Julie Bishop:

Absolutely. Any wage increase must be linked to productivity, or we will see the wages inflation spiral of the type that drove Australia into recession last time a Labor Government was in power at the Federal level in the early 1990s and one million people were unemployed. Wage increases must be linked to productivity.