Work Choices changes already locked in – Hockey should resign now
NSW Minister for Industrial Relations, John Della Bosca, said today that a pledge by his federal counterpart to resign if there were further reforms to Work Choices was meaningless as changes were already locked in for 2009.
“Workers benefiting from State awards who have been dragged into Work Choices will lose their current protections when their awards expire in March 2009,” the Minister said.
“These workers can be forced onto individual contracts where they can have their wages cut and entitlements stripped away.
“And if you think the so-called fairness test will save them – think again.
“The fairness test will only compare the agreement against a designated federal award, which in the meantime has been ‘rationalised’.
“Already the test doesn’t guarantee the retention of important conditions such as redundancy pay or paid maternity leave,” Mr Della Bosca said.
“Joe Hockey should do the honourable thing and resign now because we know for a fact that changes are on the way.
“John Howard can’t make Work Choices fair now and his Treasurer Peter Costello will go even further to make these laws more extreme when he takes over the leadership making the future of Australian families even more insecure.
“Mr Costello will be an even greater risk to Australian values, family security and the future of our living standards,” the Minister said.
In fact, Mr Costello revealed that he saw Work Choices as a personal crusade when he told The Age:
"I believe that this is the most important micro-reform that can be done… I think in the 21st century, job security is never going to be what it was in the 20th century."- The Age, 19 February 2005
Mr Della Bosca said that the Treasurer had a long-held view that regional workers should be locked into lower wages and conditions:
“When minimums [wages] are set, they are basically set for what is appropriate in a big business for somebody in Sydney or Melbourne, and I'm saying that's not necessarily appropriate for regional centres.” - The Age, 11 December 1999
“To make this a reality, Mr Costello is going to have to introduce more changes to Work Choices which lower wages further and strip away even more entitlements,” Mr Della Bosca said.
“Remember, Mr Howard made no mention of Work Choices, Australian Workplace Agreements and the removal of unfair dismissal laws in the lead-up to the 2004 election.
“A Howard Government cannot be trusted on Work Choices.
“Mr Hockey has been sitting on a report by the Award Review Taskforce to bring about award rationalisation under Work Choices since July 2006.
“This is because he knows the process of award rationalisation will be expensive, complex, and further disadvantage working families – this is a decision he cannot afford to make public with a looming election.
“Also, leaked tender documents from the federal Department of Employment and Workplace Relations reveal the Howard Government would expand the Work Choices system to cover the entire workforce.
“And the federal Finance Minister, Nick Minchin, has told the HR Nicholls Society – an extreme right-wing think-tank - that further workplace reform was required and the Howard Government should seek a mandate for this at the coming election,” he added.
NSW Minister for Industrial Relations
5 November 2007
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PROTECTING AUSSIE JOBS 
