Finally, there is a question of whether the proposals justify establishing a national workplace relations regime by using the corporations power, which if successful then overrides the application to companies of state regulatory legislation and state industrial commission interpretations.
Understandably, this has added to growing concerns in some quarters at the increasing tendency for the Commonwealth to centralise decision-making in Canberra. However, if a genuinely deregulated national system of workplace relations was being proposed I would see it less as an attack on the powers of states and more as an attack on the rampant protectionism that surrounds the labour market. Such a national system would, in my view, be as important an advance as the implementation of free trade between states and, if able to operate for a few years, would be unlikely to be reversed by a Labor government. The problem with the existing proposals is they continue a centralised system of extensive regulation of the labour market that will be readily increasable by an incoming Labor government.
In summary, from what we know of the proposed changes they are a serious disappointment and will offer only a limited increase in the flexibility in relations between employers and employees that Australia sorely needs. A labour market expert from the US, Professor Charles Baird, recently visited Australia to advise on the extent of regulation in the US and to inform himself on Australian situation. I conclude with his final words in an article in the Australian Financial Review on July 14:
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Many liberals hoped that with control of the Senate, Howard would move towards significant deregulation of the labour market … Their hopes have been dashed. A golden opportunity has been lost for want of moral clarity and political courage.
This is an edited version of an address given by Des Moore, Director, Institute for Private Enterprise, at a breakfast given by Robert Clark, Shadow Treasurer, Victoria on July 29, 2005.
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About the Author
Des Moore is Director, Institute for Private Enterprise and a former Deputy Secretary, Treasury. He authored Schooling Victorians, 1992, Institute of Public Affairs as part of the Project Victoria series which contributed to the educational and other reforms instituted by the Kennett Government. The views are his own.