Australian Politics
Union power is just one way the new laws will hit family businesses
Robert Gottliebsen
In the US, both political parties encourage aspiration and family business.
In Australia, we have embraced the reverse strategy and decided to hit our family businesses hard.
And alarmingly, the vast majority of Australia’s 2.5 million family enterprises – which account for some five million workers or around 40 per cent of the private sector work force – have no idea they are about to be savaged by the Albanese government.
Today, I detail some of the globally unprecedented blows they face starting next month. They will be required by legislation to share management control of their business with newly appointed union delegates.
Forcing on family enterprises a decision-making process that is entirely incompatible with the staff trust that causes those businesses to succeed will create incalculable damage to Australian productivity and standard of living. But it will substantially increase the current token union membership in family enterprises.
Large enterprises can handle Albanese’s legislated management formula because usually they have the market power and can pass on the cost.
Most family enterprises don’t have that market power and gain their competitiveness by their trusting relationship with their workforce and the efficiency that delivers.
Let me explain how the family business will be hit.
* Unions have the power to appoint a delegate to any business employing at least one person. It is not clear how the various unions will share that right, but the Fair Work Commission indicates one union delegate per fifty employees is appropriate.
* The tasks and powers of the union delegate(s) are wide-ranging. They must be consulted on all major workplace changes including rosters and any process or procedure in which employees are entitled to be represented, including resolution of grievances or disputes, performance management and disciplinary processes. The definition of whom union delegates can contact in an enterprise effectively means everyone.
* Enterprises employing 15 or more people must be given time to attend the Trades Hall for “training”. Those with under 15 employees can do their training online. Transport enterprises are excluded because they have their own set of rules designed to push up costs by around 10 per cent by eliminating efficient and safe independent family owned truckies.
* It will be dangerous to retrench or sack a union delegate, and employers must give them access to space to do their work and to use the workplace communication system. The union delegates’ rights to share information among delegates in rival enterprises will be the subject of much controversy.
* Almost certainly, union delegates will be instructed by Trades Hall to insist that employers obey the new laws on casual employment. As I set out on April 23, the new law defines casual employment in such a complex way that most businesses currently employing casuals will be acting illegally if they continue with the current arrangement after August 26, 2024.
They will need to be punished. Businesses that obey the law and remove casuals will cause great anger among casual workers who are currently getting 25 per cent premium for their casual work which they use to pay rent and mortgages.
Delegates to family enterprises may be instructed by their union bosses to wait until after the election before “dobbing in” their employer’s “illegal” casual hiring.
The Albanese government legislative aim is to convert casuals to part or full-time employees so they are much easier to recruit as union members. But, not only do most casuals like the current “illegal” flexibility and cash rewards, casuals in many areas lift business productivity and competitiveness.
* Enterprise agreements and arrangements will be gradually replaced by industry awards that incorporate the most expensive provisions that unions in a particular enterprise were able to negotiate with companies that had no choice but to give in.
This eliminates any competitive advantage and its impact on Australian family business productivity is incalculable.
I meet many smaller family enterprises, and the horror and disbelief that I encounter when I personally explain what is about to happen to the employee trust that drives their enterprise is heart-wrenching.
I will never forget the emotion in one of the few family businesses to survive after the closure of the automotive making industry.
The person who drove the parts business into new global areas stood up and said to his son with some with emotion: “We must sell”. Unfortunately, it was too late.
The above rules are merely snippets from the 700 pages of industrial relations legislation, which from August 26 will form the basis of running businesses in Australia.
Along with government imposed rises in long-term energy costs and other government imposts, the legislation locks in higher than necessary inflation for longer, which impacts interest rates.
It is also significant that the vast majority of jobs that have been created over the last year or so have come from activities that were either government owned or relied on government income to operate. Health and education have been important.
Australia needs to restore balance, but the legislation is designed to push employment away from family businesses that do not rely on government income.
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Excellent NSW curriculum changes should be national
Reforms to the NSW primary school curriculum will help children who are struggling at school.
This clear and commonsense curriculum will change children’s lives.
Other states and territories must copy NSW’s A+ homework and simplify their own syllabus materials.
NSW’s gutsy reforms will take the guesswork out of schoolwork for students, teachers and parents.
The new syllabus shies away from woke and worthy lessons to focus on giving kids the knowledge and skills they need to grow into successful, educated adults.
One in three Australian kids is starting high school barely literate, having failed to grasp the fundamentals of reading and writing in primary school
This sets them up for failure.
For decades, too many Australian kids have been bored stupid – quite literally – because they can’t comprehend what they’re being taught in classrooms, or find the content dull and irrelevant.
Now NSW has delivered a succinct syllabus co-designed by classroom teachers, instead of ivory-tower academics who think “phonics’’ is a dirty word.
This new curriculum spells out precisely what children need to learn, using plain-English wording and practical examples. It is clear, coherent, carefully sequenced and far more interesting for inquisitive kids. Teachers will no longer have to stay up all night Googling definitions of education jargon, or swapping lesson plans on Instagram.
The scandal is that this fundamental reform has taken so long, and that so many children have fallen through the cracks of a flawed education system.
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Female footballer beats up teenager
An NRLW player has been charged with assaulting a teenager inside a Sydney eastern suburbs unit block over an argument relating to a food delivery order.
Parramatta Eels player Kate Fallon, 20, was charged after emergency services were called to an apartment complex at Namatjira Place, Chifley at about 1.30pm last Tuesday.
Paramedics treated a 17-year-old girl for injuries to her head before she was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital as a precaution and released.
Ms Fallon was arrested at the scene and charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
She was granted bail and will appear in Waverley Local Court on August 14.
The girl’s father told 2GB that the alleged altercation occurred when she ordered $70 worth of UberEats and it did not arrive.
He described her injuries as “gruesome”.
“She’s not too bad considering what she’s been through, you know what I mean,” he said.
“And the funny thing about it is I haven’t received a call from anyone, the NRLW, Parramatta or even the Integrity Unit.”
Parramatta said in a statement that they were aware of a matter involving one of their NRLW players.
“The club advised the NRL integrity unit as per our normal process,” the club said. “As it is a police matter, the club will not be making further comment at this time.”
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Your home will be worth less with us: Greens
Catchy!
Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather has made clear the minor party’s policies are aimed at achieving a real decline in housing values over time to ensure the next generation has a better chance of buying a home
Mr Chandler-Mather said that Labor had failed to comprehend that “the social contract has been broken”, and that an “entire generation of people who previously, I think, probably would have got involved in the Labor Party have abandoned them”.
He said that a hard working, well educated young Australian with a good job could now be “earning a $100,000-plus a year wage” and it was “still impossible for you to buy a home”.
The Greens have proposed a major overhaul to phase out negative gearing and abolish the capital gains tax discount, as well as the establishment of a government-owned property developer to rent and sell at below-market prices.
The party has also advocated for a rent freeze and cap on rents, arguing that 20 per cent of renters across the nation vote Green.
In an interview with The Australian as part of a series exploring the Greens’ policy platform, Mr Chandler-Mather said the party’s key objective was to halt housing price growth.
“I think our goal, our stated goal, is to stop house price growth, so zero per cent growth, to give wages a chance to catch up,” he said. “I think the net effect would be a stabilisation of house prices.
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http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)
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http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
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https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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