BUSINESS BOSSES BLAST BACKWARDS ECONOMY

Prime minister Anthony Albanese and treasurer Jim Chalmers have been given both barrels by the Business Council of Australia over the new workplace laws, that it says are taking the country backwards.

The lashing came at the BCA’s annual dinner last night that Albanese and Chalmers both attended, and came less than a week after the pair copped another roasting at the Minerals Council annual parliamentary dinner, which they also both attended, where CEO Tania Constable called the new workplace laws “reckless” and said they were bringing conflict to “every workplace in every industry.”

VMA CEO Kellie Northwood called the reforms "costly and confusing", while Charles Watson, VMA's general manager of IR, governance and policy said the new laws had added unnecessary complexity and potential penalties to print businesses.

The prime minster though told the BCA audience that the reforms were here to stay, and that enhancing worker rights was good for business.

At the dinner Business Council of Australia CEO Bran Black told the PM that the many of the country’s business leaders think the country is “losing our way”, that corporate investment is fleeing overseas, that business were going bust due to a rapidly increasing amount of red tape, and that they were increasingly reluctant to hire staff.

Black called for the government to be bold, saying incremental steps were essentially whistling in the wind, and telling Albanese, Chalmers and the 200 odd CEOs in the room that what was needed was a reversal of recent industrial relations laws, abolishing multi-employer bargaining and top-down workplace laws, and real tax reform, including replacing stamp duty taxes with land tax.

Black also laid into the new industrial relations regime, and said multi-employer bargaining is driving up business costs, because unions negotiate deals across entire industries, regardless of the actual realities of divergent business. He cited a trio of coal miners that had the same pay deal forced on them under multi-employer bargaining, despite operating in different areas.

Charles Watson, general manager of Policy, IR and Governance at print employers' group VMA is not a supporter of multi-employer bargaining, he said, "The amendment has added further complexity on employers, and appears to disregard the purpose of industry and profession based modern Awards, the purpose of which is to set minimum entitlements."

Commenting on the analysis by Black, Kellie Northwood, CEO of print employers' group VMA said, "We acknowledge IR reforms and continue to maintain our member briefings across the reforms, however we are also cognisant that in a challenging industry chapter, much of the implementation of these reforms are costly to employers and confusing for employees. Simple, flexible and straight-forward approach is better for all."

Speaking the new legislation around casual employees - a major feature of many print businesses - Watson said, "The government's new definition of casual employee legislated against the 2021 decision of the High Court that determined the true nature of the relationship were to be found in the contractual arrangements with the employee. Effectively, that decision solved the casual definition conundrum, and was overturned by the government, thereby returning employers to a more complicated landscape which comes with penalties for getting it wrong."

Industry is also calling for a major jump in the instant asset write off scheme, which it wants raised from the current $20,000 up to 100 times that figure, to enable business to invest and stay competitive.

The Australian economy is currently teetering on the edge of a recession, with growth of just 0.2 per cent over each of the last two quarters, and that growth only achieved by increase in government spending.