State Liberal revolt over new IR system

The Western Australian Liberals have formally rejected the Howard Government’s bid to fully centralise industrial relations.

Federal Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews was told of the WA decision at last Saturday’s Liberal State Council meeting, which he addressed.

According to Liberal sources, after Mr Andrews outlined how Canberra envisaged its fully centralised system operating, WA Liberal leader Matt Birney said his party would support the reforms but not a single labour relations system.

Mr Andrews had apparently been well briefed because he attempted to sell the centralising Howard package to state councillors by constantly referring to it as ‘Court state government-style’ reform.

This terminology alluded to the fact that he and Prime Minster Howard regard their centralising package as being similar to the Richard Court-led government’s 1990s industrial relations legislation, which the Gallop Government promptly scrapped in 2001.

According to one insider, council delegates accepted the compliment but refused to be charmed by the praise Mr Andrews repeatedly bestowed upon the Court government during his speech.

What made matters less comfortable for Mr Andrews was that the Court government’s industrial relations minister, Graham Kierath, was present at the meeting and he told Mr Andrews he backed the reforms but opposed the Howard centralisation moves.

Another who spoke out strongly against the Howard-Andrews proposal was former Liberal leader Bill Hassell. It’s understood he told delegates that the Howard Government had embarked on a massive centralising path and that this needed to be opposed.

Industrial relations centralisation was seen as simply the first step in a broader centralising program, Mr Hassell said.

Mr Hassell’s warning spells danger for the Howard Liberals since it foreshadows ongoing strife between Canberra and Perth in a range of policies.

Mr Birney wrapped up the WA Liberal case by telling Mr Andrews that he and the state Liberals would be opposing Canberra’s bid to monopolise control of industrial relations.

“Matt’s message to Andrews was as clear as a bell – WA wants to have two industrial relations systems,” one council delegate told WA Business News.

Mr Kierath told Mr Andrews that he should note the fact that the first move taken by the Gallop Government on taking power in February 2001 was to overturn the Court government’s changes to labour relations and that this would be repeated by a future national Labor government.

In light of this, WA needed to retain its right to be involved in the labour relations area of governance since this would mean local employers and employees would retain an option of utilising state-based legislation in the event of Canberra being controlled by a Beazley or post-Beazley-led Labor government.

Federal Labor industrial relations spokesman Stephen Smith was joined by several WA union leaders at the Metro Inn in South Perth, where the council met, to protest against Mr Andrews.

Mr Birney’s announcement means WA’s Liberal senators are now under pressure to show their hands. Will they back more power to Canberra or the state they represent?

Several senators who attended the Liberal State Council meeting expressed their concern about the moves to a single industrial relations system.

One councillor said the Howard Government’s gung-ho approach to centralising labour relations contradicted what the prime minister had said in his April 11 speech, Reflections on Australian Federalism.

He said: “This Government’s approach to our Federation is quite simple.

“Our ideal position is that the states should meet their responsibilities and we will meet ours.

“And our first impulse is to seek co-operations with states and territories on national challenges where there is overlapping responsibility.”

The councillor said these words would soon be able to be measured now that members of the Liberal Party in WA had conveyed their position on the centralisation of labour relations.