We all know that the mining sector and the AFR have been fighting a wholesale battle to pressure governments and unions into doing something about labour costs. There is no doubt whatsoever that labour costs ran away in the boom, especially for miners. But one can’t help wondering why it is suddenly such an issue now, after ten years of mining boom.
There has been a lot of press lately about Fair Work Australia going too far, which I agree with, and more recently still, ruminations from the Business Council about the need for a new eighties style “accord” between business and unions.
Last night Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull slugged it out on Q&A with Rudd agreeing the BCA and Turnbull arguing for a wind back of Fair Work but not so far as Work Choices. From the AFR:
Mr Turnbull called for renewed debate on workplace reform and warned of growing youth unemployment. He said the pendulum had swung too far back under the Fair Work Act and undone changes made by the Keating government.
“The anti-Work Choices campaign was so vitriolic . . . there is a reluctance to engage in other than incremental changes,” Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Rudd said the bottom line was the Australian public did not trust the Coalition on workplace relations because Work Choices had been too extreme. But he conceded that reform of workplace laws could be part of a broader focus on productivity reform.
“If there is room for a new accord in Australia it is this . . . an accord between business and organised labour on productivity,” he said.
This is all well and good and it is a debate we need to have for the future. But the need for it now is in question. In fact, our emerging problem is the opposite. Falling wage and income growth:
I expect this to continue apace and the debate to evaporate. Indeed, within a year the debate may well be entirely the opposite way around. How do we boost income growth?
