Address to the National Press Club, Canberra
Innes Willox, Chief Executive, Ai Group
Wednesday 2 August 2023
A transcript of the Q&A session following the speech is also available here
Today, I am talking about workplace relations from the perspective of the thousands of Australian businesses who employ millions of Australians – about 80 per cent of the workforce of 14 million people.
Australian employers – be they business owners or business leaders – are rightly very agitated about the impact of the workplace measures now being considered by the Federal Government. They are deeply alarmed that what is hanging over their heads appears to be unnecessary, unproductive and conflict inducing – just like the multi-party bargaining measures passed by Parliament late last year.
Today I’m going to focus on five issues: where we are at with multi-employer bargaining; proposals around same job, same pay – whatever that means; casual employment; the gig economy; and the suggested ability for unions to wander around workplaces at any time pretty much unimpeded.
