PRIINMISET E
CHECK AGAINST DELITVERY EMBARGOED UNTIL, DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
WORKPLACE AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE
MELBOURNE 27 FEBRUARY 1991
Let me at the very outset congratulate the organisers of
this important Conference.
It is apparent that you are endeavouring to get to grips, in
a serious and genuine way, with an issue of vital importance
to the Australian economy and I applaud you for that.
It is my hope that the lessons learned here will spread out
to all enterprises seeking workplace reform and that, by
extension, the benefits of reform will be felt and
appreciated throughout the community.
The issues under discussion here go to the heart of my
Government's reform program.
Creating a more productive and internationally competitive
economy the ultimate goal of our policies depends
critically crn fostering more efficient workplaces around the
country. I believe we! have made significant progress but I
recognise that we have still got a long way to go.
Because we 2are engaged not in some piecemeal or halfhearted
exercise, bUt in nothing less than a thoroughgoing
transformation of the institutions of the Australian economy
and the attitudes of the Australian people to their work.
To illustrate the magnitude of that transformation, I
thought it wrould be relevant tonight if I provided you with
some personal reflections on the changes in the industrial
relations scene over the last two decades.
Certainly if' I look back over that period I see the proof of
a massive and fundamental transformation.
In 1980, when I concluded my term as President of the
Australian Council of Trade Unions and decided to enter
Federal Parliament, the Australian workplace, and the
industrial relations system in general, were still broadly
dominated by the institutions and attitudes that had
characterised the relationship between employers and
employees in this country for decades in some cases, since
Federation; in other cases, since the birth of trade
unionism in this country.
It was an essentially adversarial relationship, in which
each side of an industrial negotiation would interpret
success in that negotiation by the amount of concessions it
had extracted from the other side.
Inevitably, legitimate campaigns for improved wages and
working conditions became poisoned by these deeply ingrained
attitudes of competition and confrontation. It was, too
often, what is now called a zero sum game: the gains of one
side were measured by, and achieved through, the losses of
the other.
At the same time, the structures of industrial relations
compounded these attitudinal problems. The venerable but
archaic structures of craft-based unionism, the Byzantine
divisions of jurisdiction arising from Australia's Federal
structure, and, where they existed, the antiquated employer
organisations, were all relics inherited from a former era.
Their relevance to and efficiency in a modern economy was
questionable:. And if this were not enough, the Federal Government itself
was set on a deliberate campaign of exacerbating these
problems and exploiting them for short-term political gain.
I do not mean these comments in a solely partisan way
although it is true, utterly true, that the conservative
parties of this nation have never deviated from a philosophy
of deliberate industrial relations confrontation; nor do
they deviate from it today.
My point is more fundamental. The Federal Government is the
largest employer in the economy, the manager of the national
economy, and the creator of the legislative environment in
which industrial relations are conducted.
If such a body is determined to play the arsonist, as the
Federal Government so clearly was in the early 1980s, then
the whole economy can be consumed in the flames. And the
recession of 1982-83 was indeed a very destructive bushfire.
So both in its attitudes and in its structures, the
Australian industrial relations system at the start of the
last decade was simply not equipped to cope with the
legitimate expectations of the Australian people. A modern
economy, undergoing a revolution in technology, and facing
the emerging challenges of a dynamic region deserved better.
Today, we can say that a better system is being built.
There have been four major elements at work.
First, and most importantly, there is a new maturity on the
part of all employers, employees, their organisations and
government in Australia.
I do not pretend that individuals and groups are no longer
motivated by self-interest. But I do say that there is a
sharper awareness that the unbridled, adversarial, pursuit
of self-interest does not yield the desired benefits; indeed
that in the long run it is counter-productive and
unsustainable. And there is an increasing awareness that different groups
and individuals in fact share many aims that can be advanced
by cooperation rather than confrontation.
This is no mere point of sociological speculation. It is a
truth, that has been embodied in the Accord between the
Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Labor Government,
first formulated in 1983.
The Accord has achieved what for Australia previously was an
unattainable double: sustained real wage restraint combined
with dramatic improvements in the social wage.
Under the Accord, wage restraint means higher profits,
opening the door to higher investment and at an
unprecedented rate of growth more jobs.
Social wage increases have taken the form of, for example,
massive improvements in the level of assistance afforded to
low income families. At the same time, wage-tax trade of fs
and superannuation increases have, under the Accord,
increased the overall fairness of Australian society, and
provided greater flexibility in the choice of outcomes of
industrial negotiations.
And from the employers' point of view, put quite simply, the
community through the social wage has picked up part of what
would otherwise have been their wages bill. That is good
for employers it is good for the community.
In this achievement it is necessary to pay unstinting
tribute to trade union leaders who decided, in 1983 and
since, not to exercise industrial muscle to achieve
immediate wages goals in other words, not to plunge us
back into the high inflation, high unemployment nightmare of
the early 1980s.
As a result, the current recession is totally different in
character from that which Australians endured in 1982-83.
People are certainly experiencing hardship I have never
sought to deny that. But I always make this fundamental
point: the hardship today won't be for nought as it was at
the start of the last decade.
This time around, we are getting inflation under control.
Inflation today is low and falling with an underlying rate
of 5.4 per cent. So the pain now will be a gain later an
enduring gain for the national economy as a whole.
A related manifestation of the new maturity in Australian
industrial relations is the dramatic reduction in industrial
disputation. The average days lost through strikes is
currently significantly less than half the level of the
Fraser Government years. That is not some point of idle
statistical curiosity but the proof of a fundamental shift
in attitudes of flexibility rather than rigid
intransigence.
The second characteristic of our improved industrial
relations is related to the first. The new maturity
displayed by all sides has allowed a realistic and effective
process of tripartite planning to achieve industry-wide and
economy-wide goals of fundamental importance.
The Steel Plan rescued the Australian steel industry from
virtual shut-down and has allowed Australia to become an
active and competitive exporter of steel products.
In the Passenger Motor Vehicle industry and in textiles,
clothing and footwear, we have been able to achieve
considerable tariff reductions for the overall benefit of
the Australian economy. The restructuring this has forced on
the industries with pain for particular producers and
employees has been eased by tripartite consultation
leading to effective retraining and improved work practices.
And in industries where more recently the Federal Government
is tackling the essential issues of micro-economic reform
on the waterfront, coastal shipping, and land transport
progress is being made not through confrontation but through
careful preparation and consultation with all the parties
who will be affected by change.
The third characteristic is that the inherited and
antiquated structures of our industrial relations system are
being overhauled.
Rigid and outdated awards are being restructured into modern
schemes that reflect the training and skills of the
workforce and the requirements of a technologically
advanced, competitive economy.
Spectacular improvements have been seen in the metal
industry, where the number of job classifications has been
reduced from more than 300 to 14 broad bands. The
Australian shipping award has been reformed to allow reduced
crew levels, improved career paths, broadbanded job
classifications and better training programs.
Throughout the economy, award restructuring will deliver to
employers increased productivity, better industrial
relations and a more highly skilled and adaptable workforce.
Employees will achieve greater job variety, better pay,
incentives to enhance their skills and new career paths.
And it has to be understood that none of this is possible
without the co-operation and commitment of managers,
unionists and employees.
At the same time we are rationalising the structures of
unions themselves. Recent legislative amendments increase
the minimum size of union membership for registration, while
also providing for speedier, more effective amalgamation
procedures. A modern union structure rationalised along
industry lines reduces the number of unions with which an
employer would need to negotiate and minimises the
possibility of futile demarcation disputes.
The ACTU Executive has supported the Government's efforts to
rationalise union coverage and has made union
rationalisation through amalgamation a major objective of
its strategy for the 1990s. So far this financial year 41
unions have taken action to rationalise their coverage, with
of these amalgamations successfully completed.
An example of progress to date is the amalgamation of the
Amalgamated Metal Workers' Union with the Association of
Draughting, Supervising and Technical Employees to form the
Metals and Engineering Workers' Union. In the health sector,
the Hospital Employees' Federation of Australia has
amalgamated with the Health and Research Employees
Association of Australia to form the Health Services Union
of Australia.
Five unions in the banking, insurance and wool-broking
sector are proceeding with a proposed union amalgamation
that will substantially rationalise union coverage within
the sector. It is anticipated that the pace of reform will
accelerate now that the legislation is in place and with
continued government assistance to facilitate the legal
processes. Approximately 80 unions are expected to be
affected by the recent amendments.
We are also moving to rationalise State and Federal
industrial relations systems, including through the dual
appointment of senior members of the State Industrial
Tribunals to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
This will allow disputes to be referred from one tribunal to
another and -will enable joint sittings.
Clearly there is much more than can be done here. The
process of Federal-State rationalisation that I initiated
through the Special Premiers Conference last year may
produce a complete referral of State industrial relations
powers. This would be a decisive and effective solution to a
deep-seated -problem and it is certainly an outcome I would
be happy to consider. I note that some States, though not
all, favour * a referral of their powers in this field.
A fourth broad characteristic of the emerging Australian
workplace is the widespread acceptance of the relevance and
the importance of education and training.
A clever country is one whose international competitiveness
depends not just on the physical resources of the country
but on its human resources. A strong skills base means a
workforce that is capable of innovation, of adaption to new
technologies, of opening new industries; it means an economy
capable of earning export income through the quality of its
ideas and its commitment to intellectual excellence.
We are becoming a more clever country. School retention
rates have risen dramatically; the Training Guarantee is
lifting industry investment in training; and new Cooperative
Research Centres are being developed in the universities and
research laboratories of the nation.
And let me make this vital point. Becoming a clever country
doesn't happen by government fiat; job skills are not
something that can be bought off the shelf. What it requires
ultimately is that each of us take responsibility for doing
our own work smarter and better. It will only be when our
workplaces are imbued with that kind of determination that
we will be a truly clever country.
This conference is one valuable means to that goal.
Ladies and gentlemen,
You will all be aware that the Government is working to
produce a significant statement on economic and industry
policy. I will be delivering the statement to Federal
Parliament on 12 March.
Incidently, I believe it to be desirable that I should
address, briefly, expectations about the 12 March statement.
In it, I will make broad comments about our economic
strategy and I will announce some new measures to facilitate
the kinds of further change we need to make to enhance our
economic prospects. I will address the issues and the
challenges involved in equipping Australia to become an
efficient, competitive economy in an increasingly
competitive world.
The statement will not be some slick and immediate answer to
the pain of the recession. But it will be directed to
ensuring that we capture, in permanent form, the gains that
can come from this period particularly lower inflation
rates comparable with our competitors, and, within that
context, an environment for sustainably lower interest
rates. Naturally I cannot go in any detail to the substance of the
statement.
But I want to make this point, of relevance to this
conference. It should be apparent from all I have said this evening that
I believe Australia has turned an historic corner in
industrial relations.
With the adoption of a more cooperative approach to
industrial relations, Australia has opened the door to the
kinds of positive developments I have outlined tonight a
new maturity in the conduct of industrial relations, a
renewed capacity for tripartite planning, an overhaul of the
inherited institutions that determine the shape of the
workplace; and a new emphasis on education and skills
training. As someone who spent the majority of my pre-Parliamentary
career in industrial relations, I know the magnitude of the
change that has been wrought.
It is, quite simply, not the same system as the one in which
I was a practitioner.
To this extent, we are already proceeding down the right
path. We do not need a U-turn. Our determination must be
to ensure that we are continuing to get the right answers in
place for the future.
I am confident we will work our way through this difficult
period. I am grateful for the practical contribution you
are making, through this conference and through your
commitment to workplace reform, to the attainment of the
broad national goals we all seek.