The Leader of the Opposition is right to point out in his budget-in-reply that the government’s changes to multi-employer bargaining threaten to undermine productivity and will be a throwback to the 1980s.
Given the challenging economic conditions facing the economy over coming years, the last thing Australia needs is an industrial relations system that wrecks industries’ ability to support the economy and grow employment and wages.
Reintroducing industry-wide bargaining is a far reaching change that would needlessly threaten the mining industry that earns over $413 billion in exports, employs over 277,000 Australians in high paid jobs and contributed $43.2 billion in taxes in 2020-21.
In the last 20 years employment in mining has tripled and wages doubled, benefiting hundreds of thousands of Australians especially in regional areas.
The government should not destroy these gains by unleashing industrial relations chaos through multi-employer bargaining.
The MCA also welcomes the Leader of the Opposition’s support for nuclear energy.
All technologies, including nuclear, should be available to assist our transition to net zero emissions at the lowest cost possible to the consumer.
Australia should take steps to develop the capability to deploy advanced nuclear should it be needed in coming years starting with removing of the out-of-date prohibition on the technology.
Nuclear energy is used around the world to provide affordable zero emissions power 24/7 at industrial scale.
