The nation’s business chiefs will confront Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over economic policy by warning Australia is sliding backwards because federal workplace rules are hurting employers, building corporate pressure on the government to change course before the election.
Business Council of Australia chief Bran Black will tell Albanese corporate leaders think the country is “losing our way” due to Labor changes to employment laws as well as industry regulation that they blame for pushing up costs.
But the government is standing by its workplace laws despite the new assault on its economic agenda, one week after Minerals Council of Australia chief [Tania Constable urged Labor](https://archive.is/o/Drbto/https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5k9ic) to reverse what she called “reckless” workplace reform.
With the Coalition vowing to repeal some of the Labor workplace regime, Employment Minister Murray Watt warned on Monday that the salaries of casual workers and others would fall if Labor lost power at the next election.
The business council will step up its warnings on the key election issue at its annual dinner for corporate chiefs on Tuesday night, with Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers in the audience.
“Rather than feeling confident in our growing national prosperity, many CEOs feel we are losing our way,” Black says in a draft of his speech.“Instead of taking the big steps on the things that matter, we are taking incremental but noticeable steps backwards.
“This shouldn’t be dismissed as talking Australia down. It’s a belief right across our membership that we can and must do better for our future generations.”
A week after Constable said the workplace laws were bringing conflict to every workplace in every industry, Black will also blast the industrial relations regime and warn that multi-employer bargaining is adding to costs because of the way it helps unions negotiate deals across entire industries.
Labor gained strong support from the union movement to bring in the multi-employer bargaining regime after the last election, raising industry fears that a single union could force the same wage deal on many different employers within the same sector.
The business group is ramping up its concerns after the Fair Work Commission approved a common wage deal for three coal-mining companies – Whitehaven, Peabody and Ulan – despite differences in the way they operate.
While the government said in November 2022 that mining would not be significantly impacted by the multi-employer bargaining laws, the business council sees the coal deal as a precedent that could be extended across mining and into other industries.
Labor is defending its handling of the economy after growth fell to just 0.2 per cent in the June quarter, taking the annual rate down to 1 per cent – the weakest performance since the 1991 recession, apart from the pandemic.
Black makes no personal criticism of Albanese and does not mention the Coalition in his draft speech, although the argument is overwhelmingly critical of Labor policies, including the attempt to set up a national environment protection authority.
[To be continued]
FothersIsWellCool on
I think theres a very little Labor can do with the economy unless they make changes to Tax brackets or removing a lot of incentives and tax breaks around housing and they’re probably too scared about backlash to do either.
VolunteerNarrator on
Started a new business during this gov term. It’s going very well.
Sounds like the business council isn’t able to adapt.
VolunteerNarrator on
The BC can shove off.
Their mates in the LNP drive the economy into an absolute dumpster fire over 10years and then they cry when it’s not fixed in a term. But that’s assuming something is wrong. And it’s not. Their productivity has outpaced wages for years. IE they been fucking over the worker and now when they got to give a bit back you think you’re taking their first born. Off ya fuck
Delorata on
Totally lost me at CEOs believe!
The “exec” class, i hate that saying, have created the massive divide between workers and C class renumeration!
Tens of millions for one person is the reason and these filth ridden greedy shit eaters of Corp Australia are afraid their gravy train is coming to its end.
Business council Pfft!
More like govt lobbyists.
9aaa73f0 on
Translation; ‘taking the economy backwards’ (BCA) = some improvement to employee wages and rights.
Grande_Choice on
Absolute rubbish from the BCA. These boffins dont understand that if people don’t have money they won’t spend at said businesses. And they are still going on about the skills shortage, id love for them to actually provide data on where these shortages are. I will assume until they do it’s a pay shortage not a staff shortage.
InPrinciple63 on
There is a reason business is not given human rights: it’s merely a construct supposedly to support society with goods and services, but it’s behaving more and more like a parasite, leaching revenue out of the public arena as private profit and private wealth that is additionally passed on as inheritance creating lineage wealth instead of passing back to all the people, with no regard for the hand of the host that feeds it.
There are other ways to provide goods and services to the people that doesn’t act parasitically.
laserframe on
Oh fuck off business council, you completely ignore that your shift to Labor hire firms over the past 1-2 decades have eroded worker conditions. So many workers have lost their jobs only to be replaced by cheaper labor hire which has seen a race to the bottom.
boatswain1025 on
Taking economy backwards = “the poors are getting more money”. Go suck a fat one BCA
10 Comments
Article text:
The nation’s business chiefs will confront Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over economic policy by warning Australia is sliding backwards because federal workplace rules are hurting employers, building corporate pressure on the government to change course before the election.
Business Council of Australia chief Bran Black will tell Albanese corporate leaders think the country is “losing our way” due to Labor changes to employment laws as well as industry regulation that they blame for pushing up costs.
But the government is standing by its workplace laws despite the new assault on its economic agenda, one week after Minerals Council of Australia chief [Tania Constable urged Labor](https://archive.is/o/Drbto/https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5k9ic) to reverse what she called “reckless” workplace reform.
With the Coalition vowing to repeal some of the Labor workplace regime, Employment Minister Murray Watt warned on Monday that the salaries of casual workers and others would fall if Labor lost power at the next election.
The business council will step up its warnings on the key election issue at its annual dinner for corporate chiefs on Tuesday night, with Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers in the audience.
“Rather than feeling confident in our growing national prosperity, many CEOs feel we are losing our way,” Black says in a draft of his speech.“Instead of taking the big steps on the things that matter, we are taking incremental but noticeable steps backwards.
“This shouldn’t be dismissed as talking Australia down. It’s a belief right across our membership that we can and must do better for our future generations.”
A week after Constable said the workplace laws were bringing conflict to every workplace in every industry, Black will also blast the industrial relations regime and warn that multi-employer bargaining is adding to costs because of the way it helps unions negotiate deals across entire industries.
Labor gained strong support from the union movement to bring in the multi-employer bargaining regime after the last election, raising industry fears that a single union could force the same wage deal on many different employers within the same sector.
The business group is ramping up its concerns after the Fair Work Commission approved a common wage deal for three coal-mining companies – Whitehaven, Peabody and Ulan – despite differences in the way they operate.
While the government said in November 2022 that mining would not be significantly impacted by the multi-employer bargaining laws, the business council sees the coal deal as a precedent that could be extended across mining and into other industries.
Labor is defending its handling of the economy after growth fell to just 0.2 per cent in the June quarter, taking the annual rate down to 1 per cent – the weakest performance since the 1991 recession, apart from the pandemic.
Unemployment is [tipped to rise to 4.4 per cent](https://archive.is/o/Drbto/https://www.smh.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5k9lx) by the middle of next year, according to Reserve Bank forecasts, after steadily increasing from 3.5 per cent in the middle of last year.
Black makes no personal criticism of Albanese and does not mention the Coalition in his draft speech, although the argument is overwhelmingly critical of Labor policies, including the attempt to set up a national environment protection authority.
[To be continued]
I think theres a very little Labor can do with the economy unless they make changes to Tax brackets or removing a lot of incentives and tax breaks around housing and they’re probably too scared about backlash to do either.
Started a new business during this gov term. It’s going very well.
Sounds like the business council isn’t able to adapt.
The BC can shove off.
Their mates in the LNP drive the economy into an absolute dumpster fire over 10years and then they cry when it’s not fixed in a term. But that’s assuming something is wrong. And it’s not. Their productivity has outpaced wages for years. IE they been fucking over the worker and now when they got to give a bit back you think you’re taking their first born. Off ya fuck
Totally lost me at CEOs believe!
The “exec” class, i hate that saying, have created the massive divide between workers and C class renumeration!
Tens of millions for one person is the reason and these filth ridden greedy shit eaters of Corp Australia are afraid their gravy train is coming to its end.
Business council Pfft!
More like govt lobbyists.
Translation; ‘taking the economy backwards’ (BCA) = some improvement to employee wages and rights.
Absolute rubbish from the BCA. These boffins dont understand that if people don’t have money they won’t spend at said businesses. And they are still going on about the skills shortage, id love for them to actually provide data on where these shortages are. I will assume until they do it’s a pay shortage not a staff shortage.
There is a reason business is not given human rights: it’s merely a construct supposedly to support society with goods and services, but it’s behaving more and more like a parasite, leaching revenue out of the public arena as private profit and private wealth that is additionally passed on as inheritance creating lineage wealth instead of passing back to all the people, with no regard for the hand of the host that feeds it.
There are other ways to provide goods and services to the people that doesn’t act parasitically.
Oh fuck off business council, you completely ignore that your shift to Labor hire firms over the past 1-2 decades have eroded worker conditions. So many workers have lost their jobs only to be replaced by cheaper labor hire which has seen a race to the bottom.
Taking economy backwards = “the poors are getting more money”. Go suck a fat one BCA