PM: Before the election we undertook to abolish AWAs and introduce a fair and flexible industrial relations system for Australians. Since the election we have introduced the new industrial relations act which has abolished AWAs for the future and we have begun to build a new industrial relations system for the country.
A cornerstone of that system of course is a fair and simple and strong safety net which will be made up of new, national employment standards and made up also of a modern award system.
Today the Deputy Prime Minister and I are releasing the national employment standards for Australia. This is an important part of an industrial relations reform for the country.
It is important for working Australians, it is important for Australian employers.
These new national employment standards are a real safety net for working Australians which cannot be stripped away. Fairer for workers, simpler for employers.
Also by releasing these 10 new national employment standards, we are advancing the work which has already been commenced on the modernisation of the award system across the nation.
That is an important part of our overall industrial relations reform. These new national employment standards go to maximum weekly hours, requests for flexible working arrangements, parental leave and related entitlements, annual leave, personal carers leave and compassionate leave, community service leave, long service leave, public holidays, notice of termination and redundancy pay, as well as a fair work information sheet for all employees.
Of course this is important for the future because it provides the bedrock of the new industrial relations system for Australia. A core part of what we took to the election, a core part of what we are delivering having formed the Government of Australia.
The question that will be asked by some, ‘what's different here?'. It is essentially this, one, these national employment standards cannot be stripped away. The second is, they are simpler. This document here, National Employment Standards runs to some 50 pages to explain these 10 new national employment standards.
If you go to the Workchoices legislation, it takes I think 150 pages to explain the previous arrangements for so called standards which underpinned Mr Howard's system.
But also key differences when it comes to content as well. The right to request flexible working arrangements, very important for working families today.
The right for improved parental leave and to request further parental leave. And on top of that, ensuring that when it comes to redundancy, we now have that elevated to a statutory entitlement, redundancy payments.
Of course, when employees arrive at work, it is important that they also have access to basic information which is why all employees will be guaranteed of a fair work information statement.
This is a core building block for the future. A core building block for the future of a fair and flexible industrial relations system for all Australians, in the federal system.
That represents about 85 per cent of all employees. This is an important advance in the industrial relations reform agenda and we are proud of our achievements in delivering on our undertakings to Australians prior to the election on building a fairer and flexible system for the country, Julia.
DPM: I would just like to emphasise that these standards have been put together in a consultative way. We released an exposure draft of the 10 national employment standards on the 14th of February. We received 129 submissions about their content. These final national employment standards have been improved because we took a sensible and measured approach to generating them.
This stands in stark contrast to the Workchoices legislation and the so called Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard which was mired in complexity and had all sorts of unintended consequences because there wasn't sufficient consultation with employers or employees.
These National Employment standards have been proved through consultation and I want to thank everybody who has been part of that process.
These ten national employment standards are there for every Australian employee. Whether you work part time in a restaurant, or whether you work as a surgeon at a hospital, these 10 national employment standards are a safety net for you.
For employees who earn $100,000 or less, they will also have the benefit of modern, simple awards, providing a comprehensive safety net.
This is a way of guaranteeing working families fairness at work. We have also delivered a simpler system, these national employment standards guarantee 10 protections at work and yet they are a third of the size of the former Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard which purported to guarantee five standards, but many of the provisions were substandard and didn't guarantee anything at all.
The national employment standards will now go to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission so when it is creating modern simple awards, it knows what the national employment standards are.
The National Employment Standards and the modern simple awards will come into operation on the first of January 2010. The National Employment Standards will be in legislation to be brought to the Parliament later this year to complete the introduction of Labor's fair and balanced workplace relations system.
JOURNALIST: One of the major criticisms that Labor had of Workchoices was that employees could be forced to work on public holidays, and without penalty rates, under your system, can any employee be forced to work on a public holiday?
DPM: The National Employment Standards guarantee the eight national public holidays. They also guarantee public holidays which have been gazetted for a particular area of the country, for example Melbourne Cup Day or indeed Geelong Cup Day which only apply in a particular region.
The National Employment Standards provide that employers can only request an employee to work on a national, on a public holiday, if it is reasonable to do so. Obviously there are some workers in our community, who we all accept need to work through public holiday periods. People who work in the health care sector for example, we need them at work and that has been a long standing feature of their employment, but the National Employment Standards do protect the common public holidays that Australian workers enjoy.
JOURNALIST: On extending unpaid parental leave by 12 months, you say here that business grounds may be a reason to stop that leave, what does that include, what sort of business grounds may that include?
DPM: In some businesses obviously it is not possible to have people work from home, or it is not possible to have people work part time. If one were attending for example to an emergency response situation, it may not be possible for those employees to have the benefit of flexible work arrangements.
We understand Australian workplaces come in all shapes and sizes, but what we want to achieve through this new flexible set of working conditions for parents, is that they are able to go to their employer and canvass the prospect of additional unpaid leave so that they can have a parent at home for the first two years of a child's life, or canvass different ways of working. And in many occupations today, with new technology, different ways of working are possible, if people work through the issues.
JOURNALIST:Deputy Prime Minister, a lot of this goes to penalty rates, what are, what is a fair penalty rate for working on a Sunday or public holiday and is that set out in these standards?
DPM:The question of penalty rates would be dealt with in the modern simple awards, obviously penalty rate regimes vary from industry to industry. But we understand that it is important for working families that their entitlements, if they work on public holidays, or if they work overtime are protected and understood, that is part of the task that the Australian Industrial Relations Commission is doing in the creation of simple modern awards.
Under Workchoices, under the Liberal Party, it was possible for penalty rates and overtime to be stripped away without compensation. That was a feature of Australian Workplace Agreements. And obviously with the transition act which passed the parliament earlier this year, that is no longer possible. No one in this country can make an employment agreement that strips away those basic conditions.
JOURNALIST:Australians work some of the longest full time hours in the OECD. Do you think that is a problem and will the regulation of working hours here address that?
PM:These national Employment Standards apply to the total economy or at least that which falls within the Federal System. It is about 85 per cent of employees. And when we talk about a 38 hour week that is clearly one of the national employment standards.
Ultimately, you are going to have different circumstances in different workplaces as the Deputy Prime Minister was indicating before, there are different provisions here for example on the question of averaging, than existed under the previous regime with Mr Howard.
We think it is very important that these basic protections exist across the entire industrial relations system and for the entire workforce which falls within the Federal Jurisdiction.
Individuals are constantly going to make their own choices. We understand that but our important obligation for the nation is to make sure that you have got basic standards, a proper safety net which can't be stripped away. And that is what this is all about. And upon that, you then build a modern award system and upon that, other industrial instruments in turn flow.
This is the basic building block of the system and it is really important work and it is important that the award modernisation process can now be advanced as a result.
JOURNALIST:Can I just ask a question on the issue of whaling. Now that the Japanese have failed to buckle to your demands, or you're lobbying, and you have said that the diplomacy now moves to the International Whaling Commission, can you just be a little more explicit on exactly what you are hoping to achieve through that. Are you wanting scientific whaling declared a farce and some other method -
PM:Well one of the options which has been canvassed in the reform of the International Whaling Commission's approach to these matters is, if scientific whaling for example is the objective, then how can scientific whaling be advanced by non lethal means. Let's examine for example with our friends in Japan and elsewhere as to what the body of research that is needed is, and how can that be obtained by non lethal means. That is a considered proposal which has been advanced through the IWC by our Minister and one which he will be arguing when he arrives in Santiago, Chile in about a week's time.
That is one of the things that we will be discussing with the Japanese, and others.
This will be difficult as a negotiation, we fully accept that, but that together with other measures we are seeking to negotiate through with our friends across the world including in Japan.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) what message will you be taking to the Saudis should you or one of your ministers be dispatched to Jeddah this weekend? And secondly, drinking four beers, is that binge drinking?
PM: The connection between the two questions?
JOURNALIST:Ethanol.
PM: On Saudi, I will be discussing with the Ministers today our representation at that conference, Australia will be represented. Because the reality is, with oil prices affecting economies right across the world and this global oil shock being the greatest that we have seen in 30 years, it affects all oil consuming countries.
That is why it is important to attend this forum, and there are a range of other forums which we will be attending as well. On the precise form of representation, we will come back to you.
On the drinking stuff, I will come to the drinking stuff - hang on, I will just answer this one and then I will come back.
Your question was about four, is this the NHMRC point? Yeah. Well you have got the National Health and Medical Research Council which is a professional body which began this work, as I understand it, back when Mr Abbott was Health Minister.
And they are a body of independent professionals. I am sure their findings are going to be subject to peer review. But our general approach is that we should take expert advice. But let's see what the peer review
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: I think you had four I might have had two. And I can remember how many I had mate. But you know on these questions there's a serious debate here between us and the Liberals, it's a serious debate. We take the side of Australian Police Commissioners who point to this problem as being a massive one for them across the country.
We take the side of the health professionals who say that binge drinking among young people and among young girls in particular is a massive problem across the country. Mums and dads are anxious when their kids go out of a Friday and Saturday night, as to what's going to happen to them - street violence, people being taken to accident and emergency in greater and greater numbers. Now we recognise that as a problem and we as a Government are responding to that.
The Liberals are in a state of complete denial, and when you have the likes of Mr Abbott, the former Health Minister saying this is all about moral panic. I mean for goodness sake this is a real problem, a real problem. The Police Commissioner of NSW as described this as a major national problem. He said the problem is getting worse.
If you look at what other Police Commissioners have said. If you look at what the health professionals are saying, this is a massive problem. So either you do something about this, as we indicated much earlier this year with a series of other announcements on how we are going to deal with binge drinking, in addition to what we have done with this particular taxation measure, or you run around and think its all a big joke, which is what the Liberals are doing.
The Liberals are saying its all a bit of moral panic. We don't have that view, this is serious stuff. Ask mums and dads in any supermarket today whether they are concerned about their kids on a Friday and Saturday night. You know frankly the response I get right across Australia is they are and they are looking to Government to do something about it.
There's no magic solution here, we've got to start turning these numbers around. This is one part of a response.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister what do you say to the 67 per cent of Australians today who want you to cut petrol excise?
PM:Well we have been talking to and listening to Australians right across the country for some time. I mean I have been talking to working Australians for weeks and months about the impact of petrol prices on them and hearing their message loud and clear. Which is why as a result of this budget for a typical family we're bringing in measures to improve the family budget by some $52 a week - that's a typical young family.
That's an important measure. Acting in order to make it easier for Australians to buy fuel efficient cars, that's a measure. Acting in terms of the development of for the first time of a long term energy and fuel strategy for Australia, that's also part of our responsibility.
But in my discussions and talks with working Australians in recent weeks and months, we've certainly got their message loud and clear. Our response has been to act through the budget to provide support for working Australians and working families and pensioner and carers. To act on the question of Fuel efficient cars and to act in the development of a long term response to what is a global problem.
I've just come from Indonesia as you know. There has been riots in Indonesia, riots in France, I think riots in Spain. Lorry drivers being killed in various parts of world, riots in the United Kingdom.
This is a global problem, we have the greatest global oil shock in 30 years which has reverberating across every economy in the world. But we have a plan going forward and is as I have just described.
JOURNALIST: Ms Gillard today you have acted to ask child care centres to provide the fees their charging so you can publish them on a website. Does that mean that you are concerned that maybe price gouging ahead of the subsidy increase on July 1 and if its only voluntary will it achieve its objective.
DPM: I have made it clear over time that we are very concerned to make sure that the changes in the child care tax rebate that the Governments introduced through the recent budget, get into the hands of working families. We want to take the pressure off when it comes to child care fees.
We've sent a very clear message to industry that whilst we understand that from time to time for reasonable reasons costs in child care go up that we do not want to see any unfair pricing practices. I have certainly said through my letter to child care providers that we want them to disclose their fees.
The letter indicates that this is a first step and the letter also indicates that we are looking for cooperation from the industry, but if further down the track we need to have arrangements that make disclosure of fees mandatory then we will certainly look at those arrangements. But in the first instance we're asking for cooperation, we're asking for disclosure.
JOURNALIST: On Iguanagate are you worried that the law might have been broken at some point?
PM:Look there's a police investigation underway and lets see what it turns up.
JOURNALIST:Would you object to Belinda Neal making a detailed statement to Parliament of her version of events two Friday nights ago?
PM:Look I think the right course of action is to allow the law to have its way, have its course. As you know I acted on this matter last week. There is a police investigation underway. It's a serious investigation. I believe its better that, that investigation be allowed to proceed unimpeded.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd on fuel, the Neilsen survey showed that people are not at all convinced by Fuelwatch. Do you think that this does, do you concede it has some flaws or do you think people don't understand it and why have you therefore failed to get that message across?
PM:Michelle I think we have always seen Fuelwatch as, and we'd depicted at the time, as a modest measure to deal with greater consumer power for consumers. In a very difficult environment, a difficult environment which is produced by a global oil shock.
Its one modest measure and we have never sought to describe it as much more than that. Remember the savings that we indicated which were possible under that were something like 1.9 cents per litre based on the WA experience.
What we're talking about worldwide are massive fluctuations in price, tens and tens of cents a litre brought about by the global oil shock and that's why it reverberates in every capital and every city in the world at the moment.
JOURNALIST:Your roving ambassador Mr Woolcott has suggested that DFAT maybe facing staff cuts which are too deep and may affect its job. Are you concerned particularly with all the agenda's you have put out that DFAT is facing too much staff cuts?
PM:Well first of all lets put it in context. When Mr Howard became Prime Minister I think the first budget result for DFAT including I think the aid budget was a whack of $300 million plus. I think ours is probably more in the vicinity of about $20 million and this has been a difficult budget to frame. We've imposed an efficiency dividend across the public service and that's had its effect and none of that's nice I understand that.
Secondly again having spent some time with DFAT officers in the last few days. They are an extraordinary professional bunch of people. They arise to a professional challenge, they have worked under extremely challenging environments in the past under much more straitened resources than actually exist now. I'm talking about the impact of the cuts in first many years actually of the Howard Government.
We will always be mindful of the need for resources to support particular initiative in the future. But my discussion with departmental officials is that they are excited and enthusiastic about getting into the business of how do we advance the proposal for an Asia Pacific community. How do we advance the proposal for an independent commission on nuclear non proliferation and nuclear disarmament and various other measures which we will be advancing as well.
But we're always mindful of particular resource requirements which flow from particular initiatives and we will be in continued discussion with the department on that.
JOURNALIST:(inaudible) haven't gone far enough with getting rid of workchoices. How much have you gauged that their on board with these employment standards?
DPM: Well we've consulted all parties. As I have said we had 129 submissions. Our aim has always been to deliver a fair and balanced system. And we understand that industrial relations stakeholders including the trade unions will say from time to time that they would have liked to have seen a little bit more. I think we will see the unions say that on one side, I think we will see employers say that on the other side.
What that means for us is we're delivering what we promised which is a fair and balanced system.
JOURNALIST: Have you met with Ms Neal since returning from overseas? And if so what was the nature of those discussions?
PM: No and therefore no.
JOURNALIST: Mr Rudd what type of international travel ambassador do you think Paul Keating would make? And do you have any suggestions for maybe a slogan given that he's well known floury use of the language.
PM: Yeah, I reckon what I've seen today falls into the category of idle speculation. Its about as probable I reckon as having John Howard and Paul Keating team up for a dual number in the Eurovision song contest, and probably about as likely of taking the prize.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) the police investigation of letting it run its course. Have you or your office instructed Ms Neal not to make a statement to the parliament?
PM: Not that I'm aware. If your asking in response to the question I was asked before, what I think is the appropriate course of action. There's a police investigation underway, that should proceed unimpeded and I think that's the appropriate way for it to proceed rather than to allow sort of politics to get in the middle of it.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible)
PM: There's a police investigation underway. I don't know whether the police have spoken with Ms Neal directly yet but I think it's appropriate that, that occur and...
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) the public has a right to know here.
PM: I'm sure the public will know the consequences of the police investigation in due season. I just think you've got to be quite driven by appropriate processes here, which is that police are investigating. You allow the police investigation to proceed. I think that is the right course of action.
JOURNALIST: (inaudible) employers were forced to hand out propaganda to employees. Aren't you doing the same kind of thing with your information sheet?
PM: Don't think so, I think this is basically a basic fact sheet - here are your ten national employment standards and this is what they mean and this is where you go. Over to you Julia I think its pretty basic stuff actually.
DPM:This is an information sheet..
PM:They don't get a free mouse pad
DPM:Well we've got a number of mouse pads still available if people want them. This is an information sheet, the contents of which is to be generated by our industrial umpire - Fair Work Australia.
One of the problems in industrial relations, one of the reasons we're creating a one stop shop is that it can be hard for employers and employees to work out where to go when they need advice and assistance. That basic information will be provided through the fair work information statement.
JOURNALIST:Mr Rudd I take it from your answer to Mark Riley earlier that the Government is not at all interested in considering reducing the fuel excise?
PM: Our response Dennis is as I described before. One that in my talks with working Australians and working families right across the country in recent weeks and months - we get the message loud and clear that motorists are hurting a lot. Which is why in this budget there is a $55 billion support package for working families. Which is why we have embarked on a course of action in relation to fuel efficient cars. And which is why we are developing as I have indicated before a longer term policy paper on the question of fuel and energy policy for Australia.
I've also made previous references to the work of the Henry commission.
JOURNALIST:On Friday your infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese said words about the Ipswich Motorway saying there would be a full upgrade right to Rocklea. Can you confirm that and where will the money come from for that last 6 kilometres. Is it going to come from the Building Australia Fund?
PM:On the Ipswich Motorway, we committed ourselves to its upgrade prior to the election. Since the election I have been there to launch the upgrade work. For the remaining 6 kilometres as you describe it through to Rocklea, we will either have that submitted for consideration by Infrastructure Australia to be funded out of the Building Australia Fund or alternatively from the next round of AUSLINK funding.
Either way we will be honouring that commitment. Because its basis for us for the people in that corridor who have suffered from very poor treatment in terms of their major road connections through the city of Brisbane for far too long. And far too many people frankly have found themselves in real difficulty on that road in terms of traffic accidents as well.
JOURNALIST: Should the New South Wales Government press ahead with it's plans to privatise electricity?
PM:Matter for the New South Wales government Dennis, by my position on this has always been clear in terms of the right course of action. But their internal decision making processes are a matter for them. I have never changed from my original view on that. I have never changed from my original position on that. (Inaudible)
JOURNALIST:Dick “tosser” Turner (inaudible)
PM:Yeah, I actually just heard about that before I came out here. Wayne Swan and I attended a function with many of the state of origin players, the greats from the past in Brissie not long ago. And he wasn't able to attend, and he was in hospital and doing it tough in his fight against cancer then. Wayne and I went and saw him and he was in remarkable spirits. I understand he actually rallied to go to the most recent state of origin game.
It would have been a good one for him to watch. This bloke is a legend in Queensland. An absolutely legend. And I speak for Wayne Swan and myself as Queenslanders, we are deeply saddened by his passing, he is a great loss to the game.