Thank you for this opportunity to participate in this important summit and to discuss the state of play of the Rudd Government’s workplace relations reforms.

Introducing a new workplace relations system is a huge undertaking, involving an enormous amount of consultation and sheer hard work. It’s about building understanding – and events like this that bring employers, unions, legal experts and academics together to discuss what’s at stake are important parts of the process.

You have to admit it’s ironic that we’re here building bridges between employers and unions in a room named after the poet Henry Lawson. Henry Lawson was a great Australian literary figure – but when it came to promoting industrial harmony he was firmly in favour of a violent worker’s revolution. Let’s just say conciliation wasn’t his strength.

The modern workplace relations agenda is the reverse of Lawson’s – it’s about ensuring cooperative fair workplaces. Today, I want to outline how we will realise that modern agenda.

And I want to start with a word of reassurance. There are no nasty surprises in store for anyone in the reforms that we’re making. The reforms we took to the Australian people at the last election will comprise the essential shape and detail of Australia’s new workplace relations system. Our intention is to fulfil our democratic mandate – something that wasn’t a part of Work Choices, and a reason why it eventually failed to gain public acceptance.

In fact, significant parts of our election promises have already been made law through their inclusion in the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act 2008, including, of course, the provision that no new AWAs can be made. The award modernisation process is also well underway.

And while no one will be unduly surprised by our intended reforms, neither will they be presented with a fait accompli. Extensive consultation processes mean that everyone’s concerns will be listened to and their reasonable concerns addressed, as long as they don’t contradict agreed principles and promises.

This consultation process is a big job. We’re trying to set up a workplace relations system that can endure for the balance of the next 20 years. So while we’re obviously working as fast as possible to implement change, we’re also working as thoroughly as we can to make sure we get it right.

No doubt some of you have heard of CoIL – the Committee on Industrial Legislation. This is the committee of representatives of unions and business who will painstakingly work their way through the legislative changes the Government is proposing.

Now, for some of us, the idea of a good time is going to the footy or a movie, or perhaps a quiet restaurant on a Saturday night with a glass or two of good wine. But for the members of CoIL, the definition of an exciting time is spending 12 hours around a table taking about industrial relations. Really thrilling stuff like making sure all the sub-clauses are in the right place. They love it. And we’re going to keep slipping the pizza to them under the door and passing the cans of Coke through the service hatch until they get the details right. But a warning – even then they might decide not to come out and stay still talking about industrial relations law.

We’re determined to learn the lessons of the past and deliver a workplace relations system that has broad acceptance and support.

And this is connected to the next important point about the Government’s Forward with Fairness policy: its goal is "fairness" – for employers, employees and unions.

It’s not about swinging the pendulum violently back to the other extreme from Work Choices but putting it where it should be – in the centre.

The reason for that is simple: developing workplace cooperation is a necessary part of the Government’s new national reform agenda.

When you think back to the reasons the Australian people opted for change last year, it was because they understood that our economy and society is entering a new era that requires a fresh approach. We’re in an era of huge challenges:

• The knowledge revolution that requires us to make a quantum leap in our education and skill levels;
• Climate change that’s forcing us to make our industries more sustainable; and
• The continuing competitive challenge posed by globalisation.

Successfully meeting these challenges will raise productivity, create the new industries and jobs of the future and increase national prosperity.

We’re meeting these challenges head on, through our Education Revolution, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, and the review of the tax and transfer system.

But workplace relations reform is also critical, because:

No matter how much we invest in education and training…

And no matter how much effort we put in to becoming more sustainable…

Or how competitive we make our tax system…

… if we as a nation fail to get workplaces operating at maximum effectiveness, we will fail to maximise national productivity and reach our full economic potential.

And we won’t achieve change on the scale we need without first building cooperation and trust between all major economic stakeholders.

It’s as simple as that. This makes the workplace relations reform all of us are engaged in incredibly important.

Our workplace relations reforms are about workplace fairness and certainty – but they’re also about lifting national productivity.

Labour productivity has been the key to raising living standards in Australia for the last 40 years.

It is the key to building long-term prosperity. But recently that productivity has stalled.

Workplace reform is essential to getting it going again.

To get it going, the Government has made an important and immediate start.

The transition to this productive new workplace relations system commenced on 28 March 2008, with the implementation of the Transition Act.

This Act was developed in consultation with major stakeholders to ensure that the transitional arrangements for the new system would be right.

It promised to lay the groundwork for the new workplace relations system by ensuring stability and sufficient time for adjustment – most notably by providing ITEAs as a suitable transition arrangement from AWAs and putting in place a genuine no disadvantage test.

And I’m happy to say that by-and-large, the Australian people have given the Government full points for delivering on those commitments.

The Act has also enabled the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to start the process of modernising industrial awards, which it has done.

These interim arrangements will of course be replaced by the new workplace relations system which will be fully operational by 1 January 2010 and which will coincide with the overwhelming completion of the award modernisation process.

And to bring this about, a substantial workplace relations reform Bill will be introduced into Parliament later this year.

In the very broadest terms, the new workplace relations arrangements will provide a simple, balanced system that allows employers to get on with business and employees to get on with their jobs.

Its component parts are straightforward.

The 10 legislated National Employment Standards announced in June will protect important conditions like hours of work, public holidays and redundancy entitlements as well as annual, personal, parental and long service leave.

Employees earning $100,000 (indexed) or less will be protected by modern simple awards that will contain ten minimum conditions such as minimum wages, overtime and penalty rates of pay and superannuation.

Collective agreements will only be approved by the independent umpire, Fair Work Australia, if they meet or exceed the National Employment Standards and leave the employees under the agreement "better off overall" when compared with the modern award.

And common law contracts will also be available – but only if they build on the safety net rather than undermine it.

In other words, the new system will deliver necessary flexibilities but without providing a legislative Trojan horse that allows the safety net to be ripped away . That is a massive difference to Work Choices.

One of the problems of Work Choices was that employers were under no obligation to even sit down and discuss new conditions of employment. It promoted a bad faith, take-it-or-leave-it culture.

Our new system fixes that. Under it, if a majority of employees at a workplace want to bargain collectively, their employer will be required to do so in good faith – all without excessive rules and regulations to tilt the balance in favour of one side or the other.

Parties to good faith bargaining will be required to:

• Participate in meetings at reasonable times;
• Disclose relevant information and respond to proposals in a timely manner; and
• Refrain from conduct that is capricious or unfair or which undermines freedom of association or collective bargaining.

I want to stress that employees will be represented by unions in bargaining if they so choose, but they will also be able to represent themselves and reach agreement directly with their employer, if that’s what they want.

It will be prohibited for anyone – employer, union, or anyone else – to pressure an employee on the choice that is theirs and theirs alone.

This will include a simpler unfair dismissal system which balances the rights of employees to be protected from unfair dismissal with the need for employers, including small business, to manage their workforce, and to ensure a faster, less costly and less complex process for all.

The system will also obviously protect employees from unlawful dismissal on grounds such as family responsibilities, pregnancy and disability.

There will also be strong protections for freedom of association. It will be unlawful to dismiss a person for belonging to a union or for participating in collective bargaining, just as it will be unlawful to discriminate against them for not belonging to a union.

The new umpire will be a ‘one stop shop’, to provide practical information, advice and assistance to deal with workplace issues and to ensure compliance with workplace laws and encourage the adoption of family-friendly work practices.

All appointments to Fair Work Australia will be made through a transparent selection process. This is not an industrial relations club.

Under the new system, industrial action in an enterprise will be allowed – during good faith collective bargaining periods in accordance with clear rules, including approval through a mandatory secret ballot.

Unprotected industrial action will be dealt with swiftly.

And secondary boycotts will continue to be regulated by the Trade Practices Act and the current rules in relation to right of entry will remain.

Our aim is to show the way to a more consultative workplace relations system by practising what we preach. The development of the new workplace relations legislation is being based on genuine consultation with all stakeholders.

We’ve established an extensive consultation mechanism that includes all the major workplace relations players, from the largest corporations, to small businesses, to unions and the unemployed.

The Government has made it very clear that we are prepared to:

• Meet with as many people as it takes;
• Talk for as long as it takes; and
• Iron out as many unintended consequences as it needs…

…in order to achieve our workplace relations goals.

It’s what we did to get the award modernisation process underway and to develop the 10 National Employment Standards, which I released in June.

One further point is that we want to make our workplace relations laws nationally consistent for the private sector.

Too many businesses that compete across state borders are finding themselves caught up in a complex web of existing state-based industrial relations laws, leading to unnecessary legal bills and time-wasting uncertainty.

So consultation is also underway between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories at the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council (WRMC) to ensure the new workplace relations system be uniform throughout the private sector workforce. It’s part of our objective of creating a seamless national economy.

There is more consultation to take place before we can settle our new workplace relations system.

But one thing you can be sure of is that the changes will be sensible, will be considered in the light of feedback from employers and their representatives and employees and unions. Our changes will reflect the values of the Australian people.

As everyone in this room today knows, Australia faces many big economic challenges.

How well we respond to them will determine our future productivity and prosperity – not to mention whether we can pass on a safe environment to our children.

It would to be easy for each of us to sit back and simply say ‘no’ if our immediate needs aren’t fully met.

That’s the wrong approach.

All Australians really have no choice but to work together to raise productivity and prosperity in the face of difficult challenges.

It goes for education reform, tax reform and reducing carbon pollution. And it goes for workplace relations reform.

Creating a workplace relations system based on trust, certainty and fairness will be an essential prerequisite if we’re going to remain a nation of innovation and rising prosperity.

It’s what the Australian people overwhelmingly want – one they expressed unequivocally at the last Federal election.

And by continuing to cooperate we can build a better workplace relations system and contribute in a crucially important way delivering necessary economic reform.

Thank you.

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