Kevin Andrews – A Fresh Approach To Industrial Relations? Craig Emerson - Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations

Doorstop Interview

Transcript - Parliament House, Canberra - 10 October 2003

Emerson: If media reports today are true about a change in position in relation to the industrial relations requirements in the Higher Education Bill, it raises this question: what has been the role of the new Minister for Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews?

Is the new Minister going to adopt a fresh approach? He certainly has the opportunity to adopt a fresh approach to industrial relations which is not the far-right, ideological approach of his predecessor – the divisive approach of his predecessor.

So there is an opportunity for this Minister, from whom we've heard nothing since he became the Minister for Workplace Relations, and that opportunity is to restore some balance into Australia's workplace relations system and, in particular, to embrace good faith bargaining.

Labor has a bill in the Parliament, a Private Member's Bill, that reinserts a requirement on parties to bargain in good faith. That requirement was removed by this Government, by the zealotry of Peter Reith and Tony Abbott.

It's ironic that the now Health Minister, Tony Abbott, when he was Industrial Relations Minister, wasn't interested in bargaining in good faith. But when we asked him in Parliament would he bargain in good faith with the doctors, he said: "Of course I would". In fact he said he'll deal with the doctors because they are professionals. Well I ask both Ministers: will they deal with teachers, because they are professionals? Will they deal with nurses, who Tony Abbott insulted when he said that rural nurses should be paid less than city nurses?

So I call on the new Minister to come out of hiding – is he a man or a mouse? Come out from hiding behind John Howard and state your position, put your authority on this portfolio, and embrace Labor's Good Faith Bargaining Bill. If the Minister can't embrace our Private Member's Bill, I then ask him instead to reinsert into the Workplace Relations Act a requirement on the parties to bargain in good faith.

Moreover, there is an opportunity for this Minister now to take a fresh approach to the Cole Royal Commission and to the punitive draft legislation that his predecessor Tony Abbott has put before the Parliament.

The only thing that he has done as Minister that I am aware of is intervened yet again on the side of the employers, saying in the Industrial Relations Commission that employees in the building industry should not be able to get together and hear what the impact of this legislation would be on them. The Industrial Relations Commission threw out Mr Andrews' bid to stop those workers meeting to hear of the impact of this legislation on them.

So to summarise: here is an opportunity, Mr Andrews - are you a man or a mouse? Come out, tell us what you are going to do and I urge you to adopt a fresh approach to industrial relations in this country. Move away from the divisive approach of your predecessor.

Reporter: Just on the higher education legislation, could it be that the tough IR provisions in this package were simply there to give Dr Nelson a bargaining chip, which he may well have to now use?

Emerson: The tough IR provisions may well still be in the package – we don't know. It's a media report. I'm focusing on the role of Kevin Andrews, the Workplace Relations Minister. What role has he had in any discussions about this Bill?

Is he the meek and mild Kevin Andrews or is he stamping some authority on the portfolio? I don't know. And these are questions Kevin Andrews should be answering.

Ends. E & OE - PROOF ONLY