Senator Eric Abetz

A recent decision of Fair Work Australia shows how Julia Gillard’s new industrial mess is stifling innovation and fitting up business with a ‘Fair Work straight jacket’, according to Shadow Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, Senator Eric Abetz.

“The decision handed down by Fair Work Commissioner Greg Smith regarding one of the nations biggest aged care operators, Bupa highlights how Labor’s new laws are penalising the innovators and returning Australian workplaces back to the 1970’s ‘one size fits all’ mentality”.

“What we have is a situation where workers and two unions have reached a genuine agreement with the employer about the terms of a collective agreement – only to be told by Fair Work Australia that the workers and their representatives don’t know what’s best for them – they now have to go back to the drawing board”, says Senator Abetz.

“This is evidence of the Rudd Labor Government’s desire to roll out a grand ‘nanny state’ approach where Labor tells us what is good for us and what is not”.

“Labor waxes lyrical about the ‘innovative, flexible and productive’ nature of its new workplace laws, but the reality is that these laws are the exact opposite”.

“The lesson for workers and business is this – you don’t know what’s good for you in your own workplace. Don’t think outside the square, avoid innovation and know that whatever you do, Labor knows best”.

“The simple fact is that Labor’s laws are a revival of the tired old restrictive laws that we all thought were consigned to the dustbins of history before John Howard even won Government”.