Business groups and the federal opposition have slammed the passage of the Albanese government's industrial relations package after a late Thursday Senate sitting passed the bill, which was ratified on Friday morning in the House of Representatives.
Prime Minister Albanese said on Friday morning the package would lift wages:
"After a decade of deliberate wage suppression under the Liberals and Nationals, Australian workers need a pay rise and these new laws will deliver.
"By modernising the bargaining system we will see more workplace agreements, delivering better productivity and flexibility for employers and better pay and conditions for workers."
Deputy Prime Minister Sussan Ley addressed the Prime Minister in Parliament on Thursday saying:
"The priorities of this government are the union movement and payback to their bosses. I think it's $100 million, Prime Minister, over 15 years in donations that have gone to the Australian Labor Party. I guess that counts for something.
"I guess that means payback needs to happen and I guess that's why your radical and extreme industrial relations agenda has taken priority over the needs of ordinary families, of small businesses, of Australians who are hurting, who know that their energy costs are getting higher and higher."
The Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association described the bill as 'barking mad' with CEO Steve Knott AM saying on Friday:
"The impacts of the Government’s radical IR reforms will be a slow burn, most likely reaching boiling point in late 2023 and 2024.
"Having a centralised employment tribunal set wages and conditions for private sector businesses, as it did in the 1970s and 1980s, put simply, is barking mad policy from our federal government in 2022."
Peak employer group AiGroup said it was a 'dud piece of legislation' that delivered no productivity growth, with chief executive Innes Willox saying:
"It puts at serious risk the recent strong gains in employment and the inroads that have been made into unemployment and underemployment."
Business Council of Australia CEO Jennifer Westacott said:
"... parliament has opened the door to more disruption, more strikes and a less innovative economy. This is the biggest change to our workplace laws in 30 years, it deserved proper scrutinty."
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