WORKCHOICES: A Darwinian Landscape

By John Spoehr

The avuncular Joe Hockey won't be able to turn around perceptions of the government's IR policy.

If the WorkChoices legislation is as good as John Howard says it is, why did he send Joe Hockey, his new workplace relations minister, into car parts manufacturer Tristar to ensure that a dying employee was not denied access to a redundancy payment? Surely there couldn't be a problem with WorkChoices? While John Howard doesn't think so, it is clear that WorkChoices is emboldening employers to take mean and capricious action against their employees. Not all companies do it but many more now do because WorkChoices makes it possible.

The WorkChoices policy landscape is a Darwinian one. It encourages manufacturers to compete on a low cost rather than high quality basis with low wage countries. This is a competition that Australia cannot win and should not even enter. It represents a race to the bottom over wages and conditions that ultimately will undermine our living standards and decimate our manufacturing sector.

Australian Policy Online (first published in the Adelaide Review)