WA:Barnett under attack over IR inaction

AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-2011
WA:Barnett under attack over IR inaction

PERTH, Aug 16 AAP - The right-wing industrial relations think tank, the HR Nicholls
Society has joined the attack on West Australian Premier Colin Barnett, accusing him of
stifling the state's productivity.

It followed comments by Howard government minister Peter Reith who blasted Mr Barnett
over his inaction on IR reform and allowing an "open-door policy" for unions on worksites.

HR Nicholls Society president Adam Bisits said the WA Premier's attitude towards workplace
reform was "stifling initiative and entrepreneurism".

Last month Mr Barnett junked a $850,000, government-commissioned review into the state's
IR system which recommended having both individual and collective workplace agreements.

The review by lawyer Steven Amendola also recommended increasing the number of small
businesses exempt from unfair dismissal laws and tightening right of entry laws for unions.

Mr Bisits said Mr Barnett's recent push towards deregulated trading hours would be
stymied if he refused to reform workplace relations.

"Mr Barnett, who didn't refer his state powers to the commonwealth, has squibbed the
chance to introduce a more flexible regime in his state", Mr Bisits said.

"Mr Amendola's proposed reforms would have given small business the flexibility they
crave and sent a strong signal to the business community that he supported a system that
delivers higher productivity."

In explaining why the WA government would ignore all of Mr Amendola's 193 recommendations,
Mr Barnett said they were too much like Work Choices.

But Former federal IR minister Peter Reith said Mr Barnett had adopted "a novel tactic
... of using Labor's scare campaign against the federal coalition to justify his inaction".

Mr Reith, wrote on the ABC Drum website, the WA Liberals used to lead the way on IR
reform but now they had put it in the "too hard basket".

Last week WA Transport Minister Troy Buswell said the federal government's IR changes
had allowed unions to strike at Esperance port, costing it 260,000 tonnes of iron ore.

But Mr Reith said the WA government would have a lot more credibility on the issue
if it looked at its own backyard.

He urged Mr Barnett to introduce a code of conduct for the building industry to help
"moderate poor behaviour on government construction sites" but the premier has said it
was not a problem.

Mr Reith said that if the government refused to reform its state system it could "hardly
support the resource sector's call for a better federal system".

"The WA approach will only embolden WA unions to focus their energies against the resource
sector and will ensure that the problems in Esperance will spread."

While individuals had only a certain timeframe to make an unfair dismissal application,
Mr Reith said no time limit applied to unions.

"The current laws are as good as an open-door policy for unions," Mr Reith said.

AAP jsj/dep

KEYWORD: INDUSTRIAL WA UPDATE

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.