The biggest problem with the current Industrial Relations system is that it is too complex for most employees or Mum and Dad businesses to understand.
Complexity only helps fill IR lawyers’ pockets and make union bosses look busy. We need to simplify the entire IR system to restore the country’s productive capacity.
Transcript
Good news, Pauline and I have had a victory already in the industrial relations negotiations. Good industrial relations legislation is fundamental to rebuilding the productive capacity of Australian business. And for that we need to restore productive workplace relations between employees and employers.
That’s fundamental. The government claims its legislation, which will be before the Senate in March, will bring reform to create jobs and stimulate economic recovery after government-imposed COVID restrictions. I’m consulting with union bosses, industry groups, small business and many other groups on the government’s proposed bill.
My initial summary is that there is a long way to go yet, to get our support on the legislation. The stakeholders that I’ve listened to so far do not believe the legislation, as is, will deliver on reform, job creation, or economic recovery. For any chance to stimulate recovery and protect jobs, we need real improvement.
First and foremost, I’m passionate about positive employer-employee relationships and a fit-for-purpose IR system. From my experience my aims for real industrial relations reform include:
In summary, my view of the proposed legislation is that I do not support:
Firstly, complex legislation that is beyond the average small to medium business to understand and manage.
Secondly, more money being diverted to the IR club, the lawyers, the IR consultants, the union bosses, and industry associations, who profit from complicated legislation.
Thirdly, any change to the better off overall test, or the BOOT test, it needs to be left as it is to protect workers.
When we told the government we could not accept changes to the BOOT test, they backed down and agreed to leave it as it is. One Nation does support: Scaled back simple fit-for-purpose IR legislation. A better deal for small business.
IR legislation needs to be made more accessible for this vital sector of our economy, the biggest employer in Australia. Thirdly, a clearer definition of casual and the right to remain as a casual with appropriate casual loadings. And fourthly, protection of casuals’ back pay entitlements without double-dipping.
As I’ve already said, one of the most important elements of IR should be the employer and employee relationship, without the interference of the IR club. I’ve made a submission to the inquiry on the industrial relation legislation, and I’ve contributed to questions at the hearing in Townsville.
And it was pleasing to hear that even the union bosses are fed up with the excessive complexities in industrial relations and the need for lawyers. They wanna get rid of lawyers. There must be a better way and it’s time for a change. We know that small to medium sized businesses have suffered the most under government-imposed COVID restrictions.
And One Nation is committed to a better deal for small business and honest workers. While IR is a key piece of the bigger picture Australia needs for lasting economic recovery, of more importance are energy security and energy affordability, investment in skills development and a fair, honest and transparent tax system for individuals and businesses, and eliminating overregulation.
One Nation continues to listen to stakeholders to ensure we can bring about the improvements that are needed to make the legislation more useful for Australia’s economic recovery. Better for business, better for jobs, and better for honest workers.
https://i0.wp.com/www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Screen-Shot-2021-02-15-at-1.29.01-pm.png?fit=1084%2C608&ssl=16081084Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2021-02-15 12:22:292021-02-15 12:30:53What we need to fix Industrial Relations
Marcus Paul from 2SM and I discussed our support for JobMaker, Joel Fitzgibbon on losing support of blue collar workers and renewables destroying our productive capacity.
Transcript
[Marcus Paul]
Ah look, interestingly I noticed that One Nation have kinda changed course. If we’ve got time, we can put it up now. They’ve changed course a little in relation to JobMaker and JobKeeper and issues in the Senate allowing the passage of the change of legislation. We’ll talk to Malcolm about that in just a couple of moments and also I mean, JobMaker itself, the legislation’s very important. It involves subsidies for employers to hire two groups of unemployed people, et cetera. I mean they supported two of the labor Green’s 11 amendments and so an extension is now happening. What do you make of it? One Nation itself, how it operates, I mean they’ve copped a little bit, certainly in Queensland of late. So anyway, let’s speak to Malcolm now, we’re good to go.
And now on Marcus Paul in the Morning, Senator Malcolm Roberts.
There he is, hello Malcolm.
[Malcolm Roberts]
G’day Marcus, how are you?
[Marcus Paul]
I’m well, thank you very well. So JobMaker, tell me what’s happening here.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Well, as you pointed out that Pauline and I both opposed this when we first spoke about it on Tuesday but you know we have the courage and the integrity to change our mind when we get new data and there are two pieces of data that are really important. 10.4% and 4% and Pauline had a talk with the treasurer yesterday then consulted with me and we changed their mind on JobMaker because the people under 35 years of age have an unemployment rate of 10.4% but people over 35 years have only, well only 4%. And that means we need to get young people back to work, they’ve been hit harder by the COVID restrictions, we need to get them back to work, prevent the life of drugs and crime, get them on the right path quickly. So that’s why we changed their mind.
[Marcus Paul]
Okay, I mean look, obviously with younger people, they’re generally involved in the industry’s hardest hit by the pandemic, whether it’s hospitality, in retail and that’s, yeah it makes perfect sense to me. That’d be why the unemployment rates for those under 35 is so much higher than those over.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Yes and you know the impact of COVID restrictions on the unemployed in Australia double the unemployment. In other words, have increased unemployment by a hundred percent. But the unemployment of people under 35 went up by 150%. So whichever way you look at it, the young need a lot of help and there’s protections already with JobSeeker and JobKeeper that are already available. But we have to have to get hold of the young and we have the courage and the integrity to change our mind, we’re not worried what people say because it was the right thing to do so we did it.
[Marcus Paul]
Well that’s right and that’s the beauty of having One Nation and others there. I mean, I don’t think you’ll find any disrespect because it’s obvious you’re a minor party but you do make a lot of difference. That’s why it’s important to get key legislation across the line to have people like you and Pauline who are able to listen, analyse the data and then make decisions accordingly.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Yes and we don’t get into fights like we saw the labor Party and The Greens yesterday trying to pit young people against old people. That kind of division is just pure politic and it’s rubbish, it hurts our country. We’ve gotta work for the benefit of the country, work in the national interest.
[Marcus Paul]
All right. Now I spoke to Fitzy yesterday on the programme and I’ve been very strong in my editorial stance on this this morning. I’ll just tell you my stance and then you and I can have a blue about it, okay? Look, what I’m saying is I believe that labor is imploding a little at a federal level. For labor to have any chance if you like, at the next federal election, the party needs to be more pragmatic about its climate change targets and policies, that’s not to say that climate change isn’t important but it needs to be tempered with the realisation that the party can’t leave blue collar workers behind. Now whether Albo and other senior labor members accept it not, I mean they should, they need to look at what happened with the last federal election. Blue collar workers, those in mining, manufacturing and other sectors relying on strong power supply, believe the party has forgotten them. And also Joel Fitzgibbon obviously he’s stuck between a piece of coal and a hard place up there in the Hunter. Well, I mean he believes that mine workers and blue collared workers in his constituency have been forgotten about by labor. What do you make of it all?
[Malcolm Roberts]
What did you, you said we were gonna have a blue about this. I agree with you, I agree–
[Marcus Paul]
That’s to come All right, we’ll do it the next time. We’ll fight over the US election, okay?
[Malcolm Roberts]
labor has lost its way and that’s absolutely correct because they’ve abandoned the blue collar workers. And Joel is not the only one who’s taken this path in labor. We know there are a number of senators, I’ve spoken with them. They think that the, what the labor Party is doing is lunacy not just abandoning miners, but abandoning blue collar workers across all sectors. And labor Party, but you know what really Marcus? labor Party’s fault is just not looking at the data. It’s exactly the same with the Liberal, Nationals and Greens. They’re not looking at the data. The data says you do not need to do anything about carbon dioxide from human activity. You do not need to stop burning coal, oil, natural gas, it’s all rubbish. And Joel Fitzgibbon he’s on the right path to try and drag his party back but it looks like a path that’s gonna be very difficult for Joel because his party is just resolved to abandoning people, abandoning blue collar workers. It’s just insane.
[Marcus Paul]
Well, I mean, obviously Albo’s a part of the extreme left if you like of the labor Party, Joel is the head of the right faction and never the twain shall meet which isn’t good when you need to have a united front hitting into a federal election and the will to- See the problem is that’s why I believe that labor need to be a little bit more pragmatic about this, be realistic. You can’t make any changes from the wilderness of opposition and that’s where they’ll find themselves in the next federal election unless they alter their stance on it. Unless they accept that, look setting targets in 2050 is, well it’s just unrealistic. I mean, look what’s happened with, We’re supposed to be going into a federal budget surplus and then comes COVID-19. You can’t predict bush fires, you can’t predict droughts, you can’t predict floods. You can try and do everything you can to mitigate them in some respects but at the end of the day, if we stop burning coal, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any more bush fires, it doesn’t mean there won’t be any further droughts and other issues. The climate does change.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Yeah, you’ve nailed it, you’ve absolutely nailed it. And the thing is, there’s one other point that I would add to what you’re saying. 170 years of human history has shown us, the last 170 years from 1850 onwards, the industrial revolution, one clear trend. Ever decreasing prices in real terms after inflation of energy. And when you have that, you have a dramatic increase in productivity. When you have that, you have dramatic increase in wealth and general community prosperity. And that is what’s driven human progress. Think of how far we have come in the last 170 years. That’s an eye blink in the history of this planet an eye blink in the history of human civilization. And yet we have come so far and now labor Party and the Liberal Party and the National Party and the Greens want to destroy that and it’s just insane. In the last 20 years, we’ve reversed human progress and increased the price of electricity through stupid regulations that are not necessary.
[Marcus Paul]
All right, maybe this is where we start our blue but that does not mean Malcolm that we can’t look at newer, greener technologies in the future to include in the mix. Now I’m one of those, I’m a pragmatist, I understand we need baseload power and the only way to get that and the only way to keep the lights on is to continue on the path we’re at. But down the track, we do need to have private investments, let them take the risk in more wind field, more wind farms and solar farms and other renewable sources of energy and include them in the mix. Because I think we do need to at least acknowledge that there are some things we can do to look after our environment.
[Malcolm Roberts]
Marcus after we’re gonna have a blue, I happen to agree with you. Again on this one. You still can’t get me into a fight because I agree with you mate. But you know there’s just something really simple to remember. The Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones, it ran out, the stone age ended because we got better metals and materials. And each of the ages has not ended because we ran out of something. The Copper Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Coal Age will end because we’ve come up with a better form of electricity generation and energy generation and that will probably be some form of nuclear. But fundamentally, the second point I’d make is that fundamentally with physics, you cannot get sufficient energy density out of wind and solar, absolutely impossible. That’s why they will always take more resources to make a wind turbine, more resources to make a solar panel than you will ever get out of the damn thing. And so that’s why they’re very expensive and there’s no end to that, they will always be expensive. But there will be other things developed and I agree with you, let the private sector do that, let them take the risk.
[Marcus Paul]
All right. Speaking of the Stone Age, when is the caveman going to vacate the White House? The time’s up, I mean–
[Malcolm Roberts]
Now we’re getting a fight.
[Marcus Paul]
You can do it, you can recount as many states as you like but Donald needs to accept that he’s on the outer and off he should trot.
[Malcolm Roberts]
No, not at all. The presidency, the presidential elections are not declared by the media, not declared by one of the candidates, not declared by the political parties, not declared by the commentary. The presidential election is declared by each state legislature. Not even a governor in the state, but each state legislature and that’s not even close to being declared. And what we’ve seen now is a hell of a mess in America with the Democrats, all of the, I think almost all of the changes that they’ve found that need to be made in vote counting has gone away from the democrats. And that’s because there’s a lot of corruption involved and Trump is absolutely right. And he’s not gonna walk away from this. I think he will bow gracefully once the count is finished but we’ve got–
[Marcus Paul]
Hang on, that’s almost sounding a little like conceding a bit. I know we know Donald won’t concede are you conceding that he may concede eventually.
[Malcolm Roberts]
No, no, not at all.
[Marcus Paul]
But I think he might be Malcolm, I think he might be. You just said–
[Malcolm Roberts]
I honestly think Trump’s got it. I think Trump will win this but we won’t know and what I’m then saying is that, that Trump if he does lose, he will vacate.
[Marcus Paul]
He’ll have no choice. The Secret Service will wander in there, lift him up and throw him out by his big boy pants which he fails to wear every day, get out.
[Malcolm Roberts]
No no, I think Trump is actually, he’s got America at heart and he will do what’s right for the country and he’s got to pursue these illegal votes from the democrats. There’s a lot of fraud going on, he’s absolutely correct and we’ve known that for years in the Democrat Party in America. This is the first time a Republican has stood up and I think Trump anticipated this, he planned this before months.
[Marcus Paul]
Here we go. All right mate. Malcolm, it’s always great talking to you. Look, I’ve gotta go, next week let’s concentrate on the bail in situation and the legislation that certainly does need to be changed. We don’t want banks taking our money just to keep themselves afloat. We’ll talk about that next week mate, okay?
[Malcolm Roberts]
All right mate, thank you very much.
[Marcus Paul]
Have a wonderful day. There he is, Malcolm Roberts, see he’s become a bit of a sparring partner and I love it.
https://img.youtube.com/vi/tYI1JR69jK4/0.jpg360480Senator Malcolm Robertshttps://www.malcolmrobertsqld.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/One-Nation-Logo1-300x150.pngSenator Malcolm Roberts2020-11-13 13:51:182020-11-13 13:51:26JobMaker puts youth on the right path
Hi, one nation has voted to approve the government’s JobMaker scheme. You know, at first with JobMaker we had concerns and raised these openly in the Senate as we do. As senators, it’s our job to get the facts straight. So Pauline met with the treasurer and discussed the concerns we received from people about JobMaker.
The treasurer to his credit provided solid data and we have the courage and integrity to change our view and I want to tell you why. Firstly, it became clear that our youth have been hit particularly hard in terms of access to jobs. After the COVID-19 workplace restrictions started, the unemployment rate for 16 to 35-year-olds is 10.5%, 10.5. And for over 35, it’s 4%.
When we learned that it disturbed us and I’m sure it’ll trouble all Australians because we need our youth in jobs as soon as possible. They’re our future. And they’re also our future taxpayers for decades to come. And it costs our community and economy dearly when they disengage and languish at such a critical time in their lives.
You know travelling around Queensland, I’ve had many conversations with local business leaders and citizens who highlight that when our young people are not employed trouble follows, drugs, crime. Secondly, our concern was that jobmaker will allow a company to sack an older worker and replace them with a subsidised younger worker on JobMaker.
The treasurer showed us, this is not the case. The government has addressed this by ensuring an employer can only get JobMaker if the number of employees goes up. So there is simply no point in sacking an older employee to put on a younger worker, as this will not lead to any increase in the number of employees.
JobMaker would not be available and therefore would not motivate or drive this behaviour. Plus, there are serious penalties for such behaviour built in to the legislation. Finally, there were concerns that workers are worried that they will have their hours cut back so that a new worker can come in under JobMaker.
The protection put in place by the government is the requirement that states the number of hours must go up. It’s clear that JobMaker is only available to a business that can demonstrate extra hours being worked. There’s no point in cutting back hours of an existing employee to give to a new employee because JobMaker would not be available.
Plus there are serious penalties for such behaviour. Now we accept and we know that some employers don’t do the right thing. And that’s why there are financial penalties for employers who do the wrong thing.
And if a person feels they have been fired or had their hours cut back unfairly because of JobMaker, then that person can ring the tax department hotline anonymously to report the situation and have it investigated. Any employee is also free to report an employment matter to the fair work ombudsman for either a permanent reduction in hours or a dismissal.
Those protections have always existed for every Australian worker and one nation will ensure they always exist. One nation are for workers of all ages and we believe JobMaker will tackle the task of job recovery at its most critical point for our future economic prosperity.
Now I’m sure all people young and old care, really care and want to ensure the young are supported in this challenging period with very high unemployment for the young. All Australians care about our country’s future.
Thank you Mr. Acting, deputy president. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I speak to the JobMaker Hiring Credit Amendment bill. JobMaker was announced in the budget with much fanfare. The treasurer announced his headline. JobMaker will support 450,000 jobs. Why didn’t the media think to ask the treasurer to define the word support? His own treasury doesn’t agree with the word support, means what the treasurer thinks it does. Treasury indicated in Senate estimates hearings, that JobMaker will create not 450,000 jobs, but a meager 45,000. 1/10th. This inconsequential measure will not make a noticeable difference to the prospects of everyday Australians. And yet the government is treating JobMaker as a headline grabber. Here’s a brochure from the government, the centrepiece of their quote “Economic recovery plan for Australia, JobMaker. Creating jobs and rebuilding our economy.” It’s right here on the cover, must be true. It’s glossy. Once again, this liberal national government is misrepresenting announcements as achievements. A well-worn ploy that many marketers use and coupled with a glossy brochure. And with diagrams and with high vis vests and headlines and lots of colour. JobMaker is budgeted to cost $4 billion. Yet with only 45,000 jobs likely to be created the cost is actually only $400 million. To put that into perspective the government will spend $400 million on job keeper, in one day, $400 million is one day’s job keeper and then turn to the number of jobs and training places created in this budget. When they’re added up, they exceed the number of people unemployed. The budget,this budget is a hoax. According to the treasurer’s own numbers, this budget will put everyone back into a training place or a job before the next election. Zero unemployment. Didn’t the treasurer add up all these wild claims in the budget and realise that these numbers just don’t add up? The government has led hyperbole run a muck. Then again, working a calculator has never been treasurer Frydenberg’s strong suit. Job keeper itself was out by just $60 billion. The coalition’s restart programme was announced in 2014, as a $10,000 subsidy to help 30,000 older Australians back into the workforce every year. Six years later, And this scheme has helped only 9,000 older Australians a year. less than a third of the 30,000 a year the government announced. Even worse,almost half of those workers terminated, once the minimum employment period ended. That leaves just 4,500 per year. On top of that, many of the businesses that claimed restart we’re not serious about putting on a new employee. Instead those businesses were serious about free money from the government. And that’s the problem with corporate welfare. It turns businesses into subsidy farms, reliant on the government. It creates phoney jobs not sustainable jobs, not breadwinner jobs. It creates weaker accompanies, not stronger companies. It replaces the profit motive with a handout mentality. One nation opposes corporate welfare a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to large corporations. This government’s economic recovery plan for Australia is more corporate welfare more printing money to give to the banks more pumping up the housing bubble. That’s it. That’s the whole plan. If the government was fair dinkum about creating jobs, it would create the right business environment for growth. It would invest in restoring our country’s productive capacity. The productive capacity that’s been destroyed, by a lack of infrastructure by decimation of our electricity sector which is driving manufacturers overseas. We’ve gone from the lowest electricity prices in the world to the highest and manufacturers are leaving in their droves and taking with them their jobs to China, India, and Asia. So restoring our productive capacity includes building dams, new power stations, roads, bridges, and transmission lines. And it involves cutting red tape, cutting blue tape and cutting green tape. And it would involve if the government had courage, comprehensive tax reform. So that we have a proper honest, effective, and efficient taxation system a transparent taxation system. And then let the economy get on with the business of creating jobs and wealth for all Australians. Instead ,this government chooses to promote a casualized workforce. JobMaker is not about creating full-time work. It is the reverse. It motivates indeed drives businesses to replace one full-time employee with two casual employees. Replacing one real breadwinner job, with two junk jobs. The JobMaker protections around higher payroll and head counts allow for this casualization process. This is an attack on breadwinner jobs, jobs that can support families, jobs that can put kids through school and universities. So kids have another option for a better life than did their parents. Remember that Australia. Remember when kids faired better than their parents? under successive Liberal National and Labour Greens Governments. That’s a thing of the past. Our generation is the first generation to pass on less to our kids, not more. Less wealth, less opportunity, less freedom. And the Liberal National Party have form on this. Prime Minister Howard’s Government spent 11 years breaking up full-time breadwinner jobs into junk jobs, casual and part-time work. Jobs that have no bargaining power low wages, less entitlements and less security. And I’ve talked about that many times in the Senate. I’ve got so much data and evidence on that. There is no wealth creation in these low paid casual subsistence jobs. As a result Australia’s median wage has gone backwards over the last 30 years. And why some union bosses have gone along with this is beyond me. But we can talk about that another day. Today we’re talking about the liberal party declaring war on families, war on holidays, war on workers home ownership and war on everyday Australians. trying desperately to accumulate wealth, just to stash a bit away for the future. JobMaker is another nail in the coffin of Australian families. Courtesy of the corporate greed, hubris and arrogance that has overtaken the liberal national party. One nation opposes this legislation, this marketing ploy instead of trying to look good, governments should do good. We need to get our country back to basics. Invest in restoring our country’s productive capacity. That’s what decides our country’s future.
