❓ Mr Logan questions the delay of the industrial relations review and seeks guarantees against 'Work Choices'-style changes. Mr Buswell responds that the review is with cabinet and changes are likely, focusing on modernisation and addressing perceived inefficiencies.
AnsweredQoN 820Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS REVIEW
I refer to the review of the industrial relations system being undertaken by Mr Steven Amendola on behalf of the government, which was due to be completed on 30 June this year. (1) Why is the review not yet finished, and when will the 300 000 workers covered by the Western Australian Industrial Relations Act learn of its recommendations? (2) Will the minister give a guarantee to the 300 000 employees covered by the WAIR act that his Liberal-National coalition government will not introduce Work Choices-style individual contracts, erode minimum standards for the award safety net, usurp the role of the WAIR commissioner as the independent umpire, and erode or abolish protections against unfair dismissal, regardless of the recommendations contained in the Amendola review? Mr T.R. BUSWELL
I refer to the review of the industrial relations system being undertaken by Mr Steven Amendola on behalf of the government, which was due to be completed on 30 June this year. (1) Why is the review not yet finished, and when will the 300 000 workers covered by the Western Australian Industrial Relations Act learn of its recommendations? (2) Will the minister give a guarantee to the 300 000 employees covered by the WAIR act that his Liberal-National coalition government will not introduce Work Choices-style individual contracts, erode minimum standards for the award safety net, usurp the role of the WAIR commissioner as the independent umpire, and erode or abolish protections against unfair dismissal, regardless of the recommendations contained in the Amendola review? Mr T.R. BUSWELL
AnswerView source ↗
(1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
(1) Why is the review not yet finished, and when will the 300 000 workers covered by the Western Australian Industrial Relations Act learn of its recommendations? (2) Will the minister give a guarantee to the 300 000 employees covered by the WAIR act that his Liberal-National coalition government will not introduce Work Choices-style individual contracts, erode minimum standards for the award safety net, usurp the role of the WAIR commissioner as the independent umpire, and erode or abolish protections against unfair dismissal, regardless of the recommendations contained in the Amendola review? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
(2) Will the minister give a guarantee to the 300 000 employees covered by the WAIR act that his Liberal-National coalition government will not introduce Work Choices-style individual contracts, erode minimum standards for the award safety net, usurp the role of the WAIR commissioner as the independent umpire, and erode or abolish protections against unfair dismissal, regardless of the recommendations contained in the Amendola review? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
(1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
(1) Why is the review not yet finished, and when will the 300 000 workers covered by the Western Australian Industrial Relations Act learn of its recommendations? (2) Will the minister give a guarantee to the 300 000 employees covered by the WAIR act that his Liberal-National coalition government will not introduce Work Choices-style individual contracts, erode minimum standards for the award safety net, usurp the role of the WAIR commissioner as the independent umpire, and erode or abolish protections against unfair dismissal, regardless of the recommendations contained in the Amendola review? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
(2) Will the minister give a guarantee to the 300 000 employees covered by the WAIR act that his Liberal-National coalition government will not introduce Work Choices-style individual contracts, erode minimum standards for the award safety net, usurp the role of the WAIR commissioner as the independent umpire, and erode or abolish protections against unfair dismissal, regardless of the recommendations contained in the Amendola review? Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL replied: (1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
(1)-(2) The Amendola review will be considered by cabinet. Like a lot of processes, when it has been considered by cabinet, the government’s response and the review will be made public. Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr E.S. Ripper : So you won’t give those guarantees? Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I have not finished yet. There are already individual agreements in the Western Australian industrial relations system. Indeed, those individual agreements, which are called employer-employee agreements, fill almost one-third of the pages of the current Industrial Relations Act. We have simply asked Mr Amendola to look at the existing Western Australian Industrial Relations Act, modernise it and provide us with a contemporary — Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr E.S. Ripper : Work Choice it; that’s what you will do. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : No. We have asked Mr Amendola to provide us with a contemporary framework as we move forward because we made a decision not to assign our state’s industrial relations powers to the commonwealth. Does the Leader of the Opposition support that decision to keep the state industrial relations system? I hope he does because when the Labor Party was in government it spent hundreds of thousands of dollars financing a High Court challenge to try to prevent it from happening. He has changed sides. That is funny. There will be individual agreements because they are already there. Will there be collective agreements? Do members know the difference between the collective agreements? They will not necessarily have to be signed off by a trade union. Funnily enough, in Western Australia not everybody under this system will be coerced to be a member of a trade union. Will there be changes to the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission? I think so. I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
I thank the member for Forrestfield for the comments he made during estimates. He asked some very good questions of Mr Spurling from the WAIRC. I followed that up. Do members know what has happened in the WAIRC? Its workload has dropped by 80 per cent. It is 20 per cent less busy now than it was five years ago. It has exactly the same staffing levels, give or take a few. That is an issue we have to look at. I thank the member for Forrestfield, who alerted me to that fact. I am following it up with Mr Amendola. Will there be changes? We might even call it the member for Forrestfield amendment! Thanks to the member for Forrestfield, another piece of reform. Yes, we will modernise the act. Yes, there will be some changes to the WAIRC. Will there be changes to unfair dismissal? Yes, there will be. We currently have an inconsistency between the state act and the commonwealth act. Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr E.S. Ripper : You are going to erode that protection. You are going to introduce Work Choices-style contracts. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The Leader of the Opposition is getting desperate. All we are trying to do is break out of the Dark Ages and have a system that says that to have a job in Western Australia and to have a collective agreement with one’s employer, one does not have to be a member of a union. Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Ms J.M. Freeman interjected. Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : The member should read the act. All we are saying is that we need to provide a modern framework for Western Australian businesses and workers to operate within. Why? Because we did not assign our industrial relations powers to the commonwealth like the Labor Party would have, despite the fact that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a phoney High Court challenge when it was in government.
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