The Federal Government’s rewriting of Australia’s industrial relations law, at the demand of the unions, was never about lifting wages.
It was about extending union power and influence, and reunionising the private sector, with a particular aim of infiltrating one of Australia’s most productive and economy-enhancing zones: the Pilbara.
The mining sector boasts the highest wages in the country. This is a feat that mining companies are tremendously proud of, and one that benefits not only workers and their families, but their communities and the wider economy.
But it has come as a result of the strength of the sector and respectful cooperation between employers and employees, not the power and infiltration of unions.
From the outset, the unions have been blinkered to the unintended consequences of these perverse workplace laws, given the ultimate benefit of such incursions into Australian workplaces lies primarily with them, not the workers they claim to represent.
It is self-serving policy masquerading as economic policy, given there is nothing in these changes that enhances productivity, encourages economic growth, boosts investment, increases competition, or spurs job creation.
In championing Same Job, Same Pay, the unions fail to comprehend the value of age, experience, expertise, and qualification.
The accumulation of these workplace changes will prove to be a wet blanket on the Australian economy, impeding economic growth, investment, jobs and ultimately wages.
They compound the stark fact that Australia is becoming an expensive place to do business, further elevating the genuine risk of capital and investment flight to other nations, including our competitors.
