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“Legislation that permits the Government to favour unionised workplaces for taxpayer-funded procurement services has been rushed into the Senate and needs to be abandoned or amended to take out this blatantly inappropriate and problematic workplace intervention,” said Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association, Australian Industry Group. “The Federal Government is using cloak and dagger tactics to rush through these laws that undermine a cornerstone workplace principle of ‘freedom of association’, which is the idea that workers have a right to join or not join a union. “It opens the door to either the current or future governments forcing employers and their employees to strike deals with unions in order to commercially engage with the government. “Distorting government procurement to deliver on the industrial relations objectives of unions has proven disastrous, time and time again, particularly at a state level in Queensland and Victoria. “Linking government procurement practices with enterprise bargaining manifests in delays, cost blowouts and union misbehaviour. “Future government spending should be delivering appropriate returns on taxpayer funding, delivering projects efficiently and on time, as well as to the right standards. “The legislation should be rejected or at least appropriately amended to remove the reference to union agreements. “Since coming to power, the Government has implemented a raft of changes that are a massive windfall gain for the union movement at the cost of businesses and the economy. “While the Government will no doubt be quick to emphasise they haven’t made any concrete plans to use the provisions to prioritise unions, industry and the general public can hardly be blamed for apprehension over trusting this Government to use such powers appropriately. “The question has to be asked: 'Why would the Government establish laws it doesn’t intend to use?” Mr Willox said. |
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