www.workinglife.org.auIssue 21, May 2015

SPECIAL REPORT: Budget 2015

Fewer surprises as Hockey plays it safeAFTER antagonising just about every section of the community with his debut effort last year, Treasurer Joe Hockey’s second Budget had fewer surprises and a modest range of new initiatives.

Last year’s Budget, with its across-the-board cuts and assault on the social wage, sparked a furious backlash over

its perceived unfairness and targeting of low and middle income families.

By contrast, for their return effort the Abbott Government sought to play it safe and wipe the slate clean ahead of an election next year.

Full story, more reports Pages 2-8

REMEMBERING THEGHOSTS OF ACTUCONGRESSES PAST

Page 9

AFTER antagonising just about every section of the community with his debut effort last year, Treasurer Joe Hockey’s second Budget had fewer surprises and a modest range of new initiatives.

Last year’s Budget, with its across-the-board cuts and assault on the social wage, sparked a furious backlash over its perceived unfairness and targeting of low and middle income families.

It caused a sharp erosion in the government’s standing in the polls, and humiliating backdowns as cuts to pensions, deregulation of university fees and a Medicare co-payment either failed to pass through the Senate, or never even made it to a vote.

By contrast, this year’s Budget lived up to its advance publicity as “dull and routine” as the Abbott Government sought to play it safe and wipe the slate clean ahead of an election next year.

Overshadowing the Budget was a sharp deterioration in the government’s finances, with a $52 billion slump in tax receipts, of which $20 billion have been directly as a result of the halving of the iron ore price since last year’s Budget.

In a sign of how considerable the slowdown has been, the mining sector’s contribution to economy will fall from 45% to 16% over next three years.

After soaring to $48.5 billion last year, the deficit is estimated to be $41.1 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, this year, followed by $35.1 billion in 2015-16.

Yet in his Budget speech, Mr Hockey insisted that his timetable back to a Budget surplus in 2019-20 was on track.

Savings of $1.5 billion have been identified this year and next, and almost $11 billion over the forward estimates, while there are $2.9 million in new measures in 2015-16.

Despite the tax writedowns, government

revenues will grow by 5.6% in 2015-16, while spending will increase by 3.4%.

After last year’s overblown rhetoric about “lifters and leaners” and the “end of the age of entitlement”, Mr Hockey characterised his second Budget as “responsible, measured and fair”, and his language was more inclusive.

“I believe our nation’s best days are ahead of us,” Mr Hockey said. “So now is the time for all Australians to get out there and have a go.”

The economic outlook for the nation remains sluggish, with the Budget forecasting growth of 2.5% this year and 2.75% in 2015-16.

Unemployment is projected to remain stubbornly above 6% until 2017-18, while wages will grow just 2.5%, not much more than inflation of 1.75%.

After the ambitious and unpopular changes of the 2014-15 Budget, this year’s has concentrated on small and carefully targeted reforms to childcare and pensions, and a raft of changes to help small business.

But despite the pre-Budget spin that it would have a strong focus on jobs, there is little specifically to kickstart employment growth over the next couple of years.

In a direct pitch to win back the Liberals’ small business constituency, all companies earning less than $2 million a year will receive a 1.5% cut to their company tax rate, while small unincorporated businesses will get a 5% or $1000 annual tax discount.

One of the few Budget surprises was the announcement of a new tax deduction for every asset a small business buys, up to a

value of $20,000.The $3.5 billion childcare package is

intended to make childcare simpler, more affordable, and accessible, and includes a single means and activity tested subsidy.

And an estimated 170,000 people will get a boost to their aged pension under changes to the treatment of assets.

But the government has already angered both business and unions by scaling back the paid parental leave scheme introduced by the Labor Government in 2010, which guaranteed new parents 18 weeks’ pay at the minimum wage, in addition to what their employer already provided.

But from next July, access to the government PPL scheme will be reduced or even cut completely if an employer also provides a payment. The government calls this ‘double-dipping’ and expects to save $967.7 million over four years from the change. But the scheme was originally

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GET IN TOUCHWant to know more or get involved? Contact our newsdesk by email at editor@workinglife.org.au or phone (03) 9664 7266. Or get in touch by Facebook (facebook.com/ThisWorkingLife) or Twitter (twitter/thisworkinglife).

Editor: Mark Phillips. Responsibility for election comment is taken by Dave Oliver, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, 365 Queen Street, Melbourne 3000. .org.au

Fewer surprises this time as Hockey and Abbott play it safeBudget 2015

by MARK PHILLIPS

Budget fail: ACTU President Ged Kearney speaks to the media in Parliament House after the Budget is handed down on 12 May. Photo: Karen Barlow

Tax Office workers take Budget day actionWITH talks at a stalemate over a new agreement covering almost 160,000 commonwealth government employees, public sector workers used Budget week to launch the biggest wave of industrial action seen in three decades.

The collectors of government revenue, Tax Office workers, kicked off the next round of action with an hour-long stoppage just hours before the Budget was delivered on 12 May.

Industrial action is now underway in 14 Commonwealth agencies, covering more than half of the 159,000-strong workforce. They include workers in Agriculture, Tax, Human Services, Defence, Veterans’ Affairs, Environment, Employment, Geoscience Australia, CSIRO, the Australian Institute of Criminology and the Bureau of Meteorology.

Stoppages will spread from the Tax to other government departments and agencies in June and July.

But the Minister for Employment, Senator Eric Abetz, has hit back, accusing the leadership of the Community and Public Sector Union of exaggerating the level of support across

the public sector for industrial action.Workers are angry that 11,000 jobs

have been cut since last year’s Budget, including one-in-five positions in the CSIRO and 4400 jobs in the Tax Office, at a time of growing unease about tax minimisation schemes by big multinationals and very wealthy individuals.

But the union is also in a deadlock with the government over a new collective agreement, with deep frustration at a lack of progress in talks for almost a year.

Public sector employees have been asked to trade off rights and entitlements in return for an annual pay rise of between 0% and 1%.

The escalation of the industrial campaign was endorsed by the CPSU’s governing council at the start of May.

Speaking then, the National Secretary of the CPSU, Nadine Flood, said public sector workers were in “the fight of our lives” after the deepest job cuts in a generation coupled with an attack on their rights, conditions and real wages.

Continued Page 8

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Budget 2015

May 2015

Fewer surprises this time as Hockey and Abbott play it safe

Not happy: CPSU members attending a rally in Canberra last November.

set up to supplement employer-based entitlements, not to replace them.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said the Budget was a “missed opportunity”.

“If the government’s plan to create jobs is a $5 billion company tax cut – then it has no plans for jobs,” she said.

“The government is selling this as a Budget for jobs but has forecast unemployment to stay above 6% for the next three years.

“Australian families will be worse off under this Budget with cuts to paid parental leave and family tax benefits that are far greater than the government’s investment in childcare.

“This Budget is a missed opportunity to stimulate the economy with spending on infrastructure that would have boosted our manufacturing industry and created new jobs and apprenticeships.”

After last year’s near death experience, for both Mr Hockey and Mr Abbott, the success or failure of their salesmanship of this year’s Budget will determine the futures of both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer.

And it will also play a big role in determining who is Australia’s next government.

THE 2015 Abbott Government Budget reflects an economic reality that is headed in the wrong

direction.Worse than this, the government’s

program as reflected in the Budget fails to grasp the broader economic challenges facing Australia and in crucial areas, changes to policies outlined in the Budget are likely to make things worse rather than better.

While the government and Treasurer Joe Hockey valiantly attempt to put the best possible face on their fiscal position and the broader economy, the numbers contained in the Budget make it crystal clear that both are in worse shape than a year ago.

On the economy, Australia should now brace itself for an unemployment rate of 6.5% for the next two years.

That’s an increase of a quarter of a per cent compared to the December 2014 MYEFO estimates and the highest unemployment rate Australia has experienced for 13 years. This translates to around 31,200 additional unemployed people each year.

This deterioration in employment is also reflected in weaker GDP numbers, with 2015-16 GDP expected to grow 0.25% slower than expected in December 2014.

The most dramatic revision to the economic outlook is a collapse of inflation, to 1.75% for 2014-15. However, lower prices rises aren’t expected to continue, with inflation expected to rebound back to 2.5% by 2015-16.

Wages are also expected to take a hit, with growth in 2015-16 expected to fall from the 3% estimated in December 2014 to 2.5% in the Budget, which corresponds to that year’s projected inflation.

This means that real wages in 2015-16 are not expected to grow at all. The average Australian worker will see any gains in their wages be entirely soaked up by price rises.

Delving into a bit more detail, the growth of compensation of employees is expected to be lower than at MYEFO in December 2014.

This represents slower growth in labour income which is now expected to grow at 3.75% in 2015-16 (down by 0.5%) and 4.5% in 2016-17 (down by 0.25%).

At the same time, while capital income and profits are expected to take a significant hit in 2015-16, by 2016-17 both are expected to grow at 7.5%, a whole 1.5% higher than expected at MYEFO.

Workers should be under no illusion, not only should we expect lower income growth in coming years, but workers’ share of that growth continues its long decline.

IT is no surprise that government revenue has taken a hit in this Budget.

We were all warned that the fall in commodity prices and slow growth in wages would hit revenue.

So to see the Budget position deteriorate once again shouldn’t be a surprise. Yet, it is worth considering just how far the Budget balance has deteriorated under the government that proclaimed before the election that it would deliver a surplus in every year of its first term.

This year’s Budget deficit has blown out from $24 billion in the independent Pre-Election Fiscal Outlook compiled by Treasury and Finance, to $40.4 billion in last December’s MYEFO and to $41.1 billion in this Budget.

This blowout is repeated across every year of the forward estimates, with the deficit across the years 2014-15 to 2017-18 getting worse by $12.5 billion in just six months, or over $2 billion per month.

It may be the case that what the economy needs is a dose of fiscal stimulus and a pause in what is becoming an infinite road back to surplus. Indeed, this is the view of many economists but the government’s deteriorating Budget balance isn’t the result of a stimulus package and it certainly doesn’t deliver one.

In not really presenting a ‘Budget that suits the time’, the government fails to address the growth and jobs shortfall facing the economy while also failing to address the need for fiscal consolidation.

Neither does the Budget include a real jobs plan that would address a looming jobs crisis, particularly in regions affected

The verdict: another missed opportunity for economy4 .org.au May 2015

by TOM SKLADZIEN

Budget 2015

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The verdict: another missed opportunity for economyBudget 2015

May 2015

by manufacturing and other closures.Nor does the Budget address fiscal

sustainability in any substantial way by tackling inequitable and inefficient tax rorts in the superannuation, capital gains or negative gearing systems.

This is a Budget that is lacking in both an understanding of the challenges facing the country and the vision needed to address those challenges.

The Budget isn’t focused on creating jobs, training workers, supporting the unemployed to find good new work or supporting industry to invest in new jobs.

Rather than bold policies to address economy wide challenges, it pays lip service through a package of tax cuts to small business.

These measures fall far short of what’s needed to stimulate the non-mining and non-housing growth that we need to get unemployment rate below 6%. They don’t address the technological, innovation and collaboration drivers of growth and they don’t apply across the economy.

INSTEAD, the government has announced a ‘families package’ as its centrepiece.

Yet this package is funded by cuts to family benefits, bringing into question both the motivation and the net equity effect of the package as a whole. This is a

package that if funded by an equitable and sensible revenue stream, would be very welcomed, but as is, it is nothing more than robbing Paul to pay Peter.

This is a Budget that compared to its predecessor will be judged a relative success, but this is small praise when its predecessor was widely accepted as massively unfair and perhaps the worst Budget in the nation’s history.

On the metrics that matter; does it address the nation’s economic and fiscal challenges? Does it present a vision for future prosperity and a path that leads to

that vision? Will it bring an end to the ongoing slump in business and consumer confidence?

The answers can only be no.No-one should be under the illusion it

is a Budget that addresses our challenges.Rather than a wholesale attack on the

Australian social contract like we saw a year ago, this Budget represents a measured attack.

Rather than a Budget that will lift Australians up, it will push far too many down. Another missed opportunity at a time when the cost of each missed opportunity grows.

Tom Skladzien is national economist at the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union

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JobsA single wage subsidy pool will be established with access to funding of $1.2 billion over four years, and last year’s new Restart program for job seekers aged over 50 will be revamped to give employers access to wage subsidies of up to $10,000 earlier.

Young workersThe government has dramatically scaled back the harsh ‘earn or learn’ measures from last year, which would have forced job seekers aged 30 and under to wait six months before receiving Newstart or youth allowance. This backdown will strip $2 billion from the bottom line over five years. Instead, under 25-year-olds will need to wait four weeks for assistance. The Budget also allocates $25 million to enforce mutual obligation requirements for job seekers. Overall, $330 million has been provided to a youth employment strategy, including $212 million for a transition to work program for disengaged young people and $106 million for intensive support for key groups of vulnerable young people.

PensionsA major shake-up of the treatment of assets for eligibility to the aged pension will result in a boost to the pension for about 170,000 people. Under the changes, the threshold for assets (apart from the family home) will be raised, upgrading about 50,000 to the full pension. But for those with assets above the threshold the taper rate will double to $3 for every $1000 of assets. It is estimated that these changes will cut about $2.4 billion from spending on the pension, even after the government decided not to go ahead with unpopular changes to the indexation of the pension and other payments which would have cut its value over time.

ChildcareA simplified, single childcare subsidy which will come into effect from July 2017 is the centrepiece of a $4.4 billion families package, which includes $3.2 billion in new childcare funding. It will be means and activities tested, so that families

earning $65,000 or less will receive a subsidy of 85% of their childcare fees, tapering to 50% for families with earning $165,000 a year, and capped at $10,000 per child for families earning more than $180,000. The government is spending an extra $327.7 million to establish a ‘childcare safety net’ for disadvantaged, vulnerable and special needs children. It is also spending $250 million on a trial of home-based nannies, which will begin in January next year. The government says this will help shift workers.

Paid parental leaveOne of the most controversial changes in the 2015-16 Budget is the scaling back of the paid parental leave scheme introduced by the Labor Government in 2010, which guaranteed new parents 18 weeks pay at the minimum wage, in addition to what their employer already provided. But from next July, access to the government PPL scheme will be reduced or even cut completely if an employer also provides a payment. The government calls this ‘double dipping’ and expects to save $967.7 million over four years.

Industry assistanceThe demise of Australia’s carmaking industry will save Treasury $795 million that had been allocated to the Automotive Transformation Scheme over seven years from 2014-15. Funding has been cut for other key industry and research programs, including Co-operative Research Centres, Commercialisation Australia, Enterprise Connect and Industry Innovation Precincts, saving $58.5 million.

Public sector jobsThe slashing of the public service since the election of the Abbott Government is set to stop in 2015-16, with confirmation in the Budget Papers that more than 17,300 jobs have been cut in the Australian Public Service (outside of the military) and average staffing levels have fallen from 179,953 in 2012-13 to 167,411 this year.

Winners and losers from the federal BudgetBudget 2015

Here are the key features of the 2015 federal Budget at a glance.

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Winners and losers from the federal BudgetThis is the smallest public sector since 2006-7, and has come at a cost of $212 million in redundancy payments.

HealthcareAfter $57 billion was slashed from the public health system last year, a further $2 billion has been cut from from health and aged care in this year’s Budget, including in disease prevention and chronic care areas. The unpopular $7 GP visit co-payment has been formally dumped, while from next January, parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated, except for credible medical reasons, will lose access to childcare payments and Family Tax Benefit Part A, which will save $508.3 million, while $252.2 million will be saved from price changes for some medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

SchoolsThe Budget confirms the Abbott Government will not honour the final two years of the Gonski agreements on schools funding to the states. Two-thirds of extra funding was due to be delivered in the years five and six of Gonski, and by failing to honour the agreements beyond 2016-17 and cutting indexation of schools funding beyond that, the Abbott Government will cut approximately $3.8 billion from schools in 2019 and 2020. For public schools alone this is the equivalent of cutting 20,000 educators from schools, according to the Australian Education Union. There was also no new funding to support students with a disability.

Higher educationAfter failing to convince the Senate to pass deregulation of university fees and higher interest payments on HELP loans, the government has this year explored a more modest option of requiring graduates living and working overseas and earning over $53,345 to begin making minimum repayments of their HELP debts. But this will only bring $26 million into the government coffers.

The workplaceExtra resources will be pumped into the Office of the Fair Work Building

Inspectorate, which had its coercive powers extended by the Senate on Monday, with its budget more than doubling to $35.2 million, and staff growing to 155. But funds will be cut from the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency, while the Fair Work Ombudsman will lose 25 staff, taking total numbers down to 685. Just $3.7 million has been allocated over four years to tighten the 457 visa program following the recommendations of a review earlier this year.

FIFO/DIDO workersFly-in-fly-out and drive-in-drive-out workers in remote areas will no longer be able to claim a remote area tax offset which is designed to support people living and working in harsh and isolated places. About 20% of the people who claim the offset do not permanently live in remote areas and instead fly or drive in from other parts of Australia. This change will earn an estimated $325 million in revenue over the forward estimates. Additionally, backpackers on working holidays will lose the tax-free threshold.

TaxAfter lobbying by domestic retailers, the GST will be applied to overseas suppliers of digital products and services – such as Netflix – from July 2017. This is estimated to bring in an additional $350 million in revenue over the forward estimates period. About 30 large multinational companies who are suspected of diverting profits by using artificial structures to avoid tax will come under the scrutiny of a new regime which could see them facing penalties of up to 100% of the tax they owe.

Small businessThe company tax rate for all companies turning over $2 million or less a year will be cut by 1.5% to 28.5%. For unincorporated companies, there will be a 5% tax discount, up to $1000 a year. Small businesses will also be entitled to an immediate tax deduction for every asset they buy costing less than $20,000, up from a threshold of $1000. The total cost of these changes will be $5.3 billion over four years.

Budget 2015

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Budget 2015

THE announcement on Mother’s Day that the Abbott-Hockey Government would remove access to the paid parental leave scheme for those who had employer-provided paid leave came as a rude shock.

Furthermore, to be accused of ‘double-dipping’, of ‘rorting’ and ‘fraud’ was even more offensive to Australian women.

Australian women have not been double-dipping – but they have been double-crossed.

They were promised an enhanced PPL scheme by the Prime Minister and the Treasurer just one year ago.

Instead, they will end up with a lot less if the proposed changes are passed. It is estimated that half of the female workforce will lose up to $11,500 in paid parental leave from July 2016.

At present Australian women with new babies are legally entitled to access their employer provided paid parental scheme – if they have one – and complement this with the universal government scheme paid at the national minimum wage for 18 weeks.

This is not ‘double-dipping’.Complementarity between the two

systems was part of the design of the paid parental leave scheme and is a legal entitlement for new mothers to help them achieve a longer period of paid parental leave than would otherwise be possible.

The World Health Organisation

recommends new mothers spend six months on paid leave away from the workforce to promote child and mother well-being.

The current system was implemented with an expectation that it would be improved upon through negotiation with government and employers, for example by lengthening the period of paid leave to 26 weeks and adding superannuation contributions.

The new proposal flies in the face of the findings of the independent evaluation of the government scheme, which shows it has delivered improvements in the time women can bond with their babies and in their return to work rates.

So, what will the effect on women be?Some women will be forced to return

to work earlier because they and their families will not be able to afford to stay

off work without any income.Other women may give up and leave the

workforce completely. Over time, women and men may decide to not have children because of the economic insecurity and unpredictability of parental leave policy.

It is unclear how employers will respond but it is clear they were not consulted either. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has suggested that many employers will respond by ceasing to pay PPL as such, and will provide ancillary benefits instead.

In this way females can still claim the government’s taxpayer-funded PPL.

This is not what the government wants to hear.

Marian Baird is Professor of Employment Relations in the University of Sydney Business School

by MARIAN BAIRDUniversity of Sydney

A decent ‘paid parental leavescheme is not ‘double-dipping

Tax Office staff take Budget Day actionContinued from Page 3

“They [the government] have taken a position so draconian, no private sector employer, no major employer in Australia is offering worse than this government,” she said.

“And that’s why we are fighting back . . . launching the biggest round of industrial action the Commonwealth

government has seen in 30 years.“But all this is unnecessary. At any

moment this government could solve this fight. They could sit down and have sensible negotiations like every other major employer has to.

“That’s the conversation we should be having but this government will not talk . . . It’s completely nuts − this is not modern workplace relations, it is public sector bargaining as ideological war. So our door is open. We will talk,

but until this government is prepared to talk we will fight.”

Senator Abetz has consistently blamed the stalemate on the union’s claim for a 12.5% pay rise and accused the CPSU of “grossly exaggerating” the level of support for industrial action.

He claimed that four out of five public servants in the 11 agencies that have so far voted did not support action and were “embarrassed about reciting union propaganda”.

HARD to believe, my first ACTU Congress was 36 years ago. I was here for the Sydney Morning

Herald.It was 1979. I was 26-years-old.

The paper sent down three (yes, three) reporters because they wanted to devote two (sometimes three) whole pages to covering the ins-and-outs of Congress.

As the junior it was my job to run a column devoting two or three paragraphs to every single debate at Congress.

I remember watching open mouthed as Bob Hawke famously gave a rousing

uranium mining speech. The media table was immediately below the stage where Hawke was speaking.

There were maybe 30 journos there – from the Sydney and Melbourne Industrial Press Galleries and the Canberra political rounds people.

It will be interesting to see how many media types turn up for this Congress.

The change in circumstances of the union movement – and the fact that today there are probably only a handful of journalists regularly covering workplaces issues – will be clearly demonstrated.

It was a largely blokey affair at the time and the older industrial rounds journos would regale you in the pub about ACTU Congresses past.

Shane Green, now an editor at the Melbourne Age was also at the same

ACTU Congress I first attended. He recently wrote, lamenting the Dallas Brooks Hall, where Congress met, is about to be demolished.

Shane also remembers that standout impassioned Hawke speech which called on unions to lift the ban on uranium mining. It was possibly one of the few times that Hawke lost a union ballot.

There are going to be new ideological fights on the floor of ACTU Congress – and that is not a bad thing. The battle of ideas is what will keep unionism strong in this country.

And the new way that unions must engage with the media to get these ideas out to Australian workers and their families is one that will fascinate me when I turn up 36 years after I first flew to Melbourne to cover an ACTU Congress.

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ACTU Congress 2015

by ANDREW CASEYAsia-Pacific editor of LabourStart

Remembering the ghosts of ACTU Congresses past

Andrew Casey’s five best Congress memories

1979 ACTU President Bob Hawke gave an extraordinary emotional speech but he took a drubbing at the hands of Congress delegates who voted down his proposal to lift the ban on uranium mining.

1983 Congress endorsed the basis of what became known as the Accord. The Accord delivered, among other things, superannuation for all Australian workers.

1987 A Future Strategies document was adopted which paved the way for the industry-based structure of the modern union movement.

1993 Congress voted to bring gender balance to the ACTU Executive which had been male-dominated since 1927. Two years later the ACTU voted in its first woman President in Jennie George.

2003 ACTU Secretary, Greg Combet, gave a rousing opening speech about the need for unions to rebuild union political power. That Congress triggered a campaign eventually known as Your Rights at Work. Photo: Adam Hollingworth/ACTU

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EVERY three years, union members and officials from around Australia convene for the ACTU Congress, the biggest decision-making forum for the peak union body. This year, Congress is in Melbourne from 26-28 May.

Ahead of Congress, ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver spoke at the National Press Club in Canberra on 6 May about some of the issues that will be on the agenda.

Here are some of the highlights:

“The foundations of a civilised and productive society have never been in more peril than they are today.”

OLIVER warned that the social compact which the union movement helped build – which includes the minimum wage, the welfare system, public health and education – was at peril and living standards faced their greatest threat in a generation.

Workers, who have contributed to the bulk of productivity gains in recent years, were not sharing in the benefits, he said.

He added that workers were concerned when business leaders complained that wages are too high, or attacked weekend rates as a relic of the past, and told them they should just accept job insecurity.

“And it infuriates them to read – as the newspapers last week reported – that 55 millionaires paid no tax last year – not a cent, not even the Medicare levy.

“Adding insult to injury, they have the audacity to claim back as deductions what they spend on paying for the advice they get to minimise their tax bills in the first place,” Oliver said.

“It makes you wonder who the real lifters and leaners are?”

“This government should know by now that you can’t treat the electorate as mugs.”

OLIVER said the decline of living standards had been accelerated by last year’s Budget “wrecking ball”.

He said the cuts and extra costs in the 2014 Budget had been accompanied by “a callous disregard for Australian jobs”.

The abandonment of the carmaking industry and the failure to support the local shipbuilding and Defence contracting industries had been exacerbated by the widespread use of temporary migration to plug workforce gaps, rather than giving a chance to unemployed local workers.

“With unemployment stubbornly stuck above 6%, this inaction on jobs has been compounded by the government’s obsession with cutting the Budget deficit and taking an axe to the public sector – the type of austerity policies that have mired parts of Europe in deep recession for many years.

“The advance mail is that next week’s Budget will contain a package of sweeteners for working families, including more childcare assistance. But after last year’s Budget, it’s a bit like putting a band-aid on an amputated limb.

“This government should know by now that you can’t treat the electorate as mugs.”

Oliver said the Victorian and Queensland election results showed voters will punish governments who “arrogantly over-reach to undermine jobs, public services, healthcare, education and rights at work”.

“Union is not a dirty word.”

NOT surprisingly, Dave Oliver used the opportunity of a nationally televised audience to make a passionate defence of the role of unions in fighting for a more just society and economy.

“One of the reasons why Australia has avoided going down the same path of inequality as many other developed economies has been because we still have a strong union movement,” he said.

A recent paper by the International Monetary Fund has explained how inequality has risen at the same time as union density has fallen in developed countries. Oliver said inequality would be high on the agenda at the ACTU Congress.

“[Workers’] number one concern is growing inequality and their fear that

ACTU Congress 2015

Oliver warns of challenges, sets out vision

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they are seeing an Americanisation of our society, with a large underbelly of working poor and where the average family struggles to afford to send their kids to university, their health depends on the depth of their pockets, and buying their own home is less of a dream and more of a fantasy.”

But he said there were powerful forces who wanted to handicap unions so they would be less able to protect living standards, which was why the Heydon royal commission had been established.

“Business leaders talk enthusiastically of the opportunities from the digital revolution, but rarely of the downsides for workers.”

DAVE Oliver told the National Press Club that over the last three years the ACTU had built the foundations to once again be an umbrella campaigning organisation for the whole union movement.

But he said the impact of the digital revolution posed new challenges for workers and unions.

“Across the economy and society, the digital revolution is a disruptive influence on traditional ways of doing business, on the relationship between consumers and companies, and crucially on job security and workplace protections,” he said.

“Business leaders talk enthusiastically of the opportunities from the digital revolution, but rarely of the downsides for workers.

“And while there is certainly merit in the idea that for those workers whose skills are in demand there has never been a better time to be in the workforce, it is also just as true that for those who lack unique skills or training, or are in a job that can be easily automated, there has never been a more challenging time.”

Oliver said online platforms like Uber, Air BnB and freelancer.com were causing an acceleration of the shifting of risk in the workplace from companies to individuals.

“The idea of freelancing – being your own boss – has surface attractions, but when you think about it more deeply, this

has implications for job security and the entitlements that come with a secure job – entitlements to a safe and healthy working environment, to paid leave, to reasonable hours and overtime, to superannuation and worker’s compensation.”

All organisations are facing similar challenges about how they adapt to this new environment, and unions are no different, Oliver said.

“For all its benefits, technology unguided and unplanned will not solve income inequality or worker exploitation. These workers need to be protected and there must be laws that recognise the changing nature of work.”

Oliver said unions needed to continue to innovate so they could reach the vast workforce that exists only online and he wants to make this a focus of the Congress.

“Co-operation: now that’s a radical idea.”

OLIVER finished his speech with an invitation to the business community and government to work with unions on developing a long-term vision for the jobs of the future.

He said unions wanted to take a high road to prosperity, and he was encouraged by a similar call by the President of the Business Council, Catherine Livingstone, when she also addressed the National Press Club a week ago.

“But the conversation won’t get very far if all the business community wants to talk about is “flexibility” – cutting wages, cutting penalty rates, making it easier to sack people, widening the use of individual contracts and reducing people’s rights at work,” he added. “I know business can be better than this.”

The high road was one where the government led the way by investing in transport, infrastructure, building skills and knowledge, and encouraging innovation – and where unions have a significant role to play in ensuring workers are rewarded for their role in delivering economic and productivity growth.

Harking back to the golden age of economic reform during the Accord era of the 1980s and early-1990s, Oliver said the key to achieving lasting economic change was collaboration between governments, unions and employers.

ACTU Congress 2015

Ready for a fight: Dave Oliver speaking at the national day of action in March.