Comment by Frank Noakes
It appeared all the more galling that the Australian Democrats' first response to the federal Labor government's industrial relations bills was released on the eve of Business Review Weekly's top 1000 survey of the most profitable Australian businesses (released October 22).
The BRW survey announced, "Profits are surging and employment is falling". But the Democrats announced that they were worried about wages being too high: "The lack of a public interest test allowing the IRC to keep inflationary wage claims within reasonable limits raises the spectre of wage break-outs if and when the recovery accelerates".
Statements such as "Net profit after tax for the BRW Top 1000 companies improved nearly 28%" cut no ice with the Democrat industrial relations spokesperson, Senator Robert Bell; as a matter of principle, he wants only a "limited right to industrial action by employees and employers[!] during a bargaining period supervised by the IRC ..."
BRW reports, "The trend for rising profit at the cost of declining employment is evident among a clear majority of our largest businesses ...". But the Democrats are concerned to ensure that employers should have "speedy access to the courts ... where economic damage is being suffered" because of industrial action. In other words, it's okay to strike as long as you don't hurt the boss.
No matter that the top 200 companies cutting staff outnumber those hiring by two to one; no matter that even "successful growth-oriented companies also are trimming their workforces", economic damage to the rich must be speedily prevented.
Does the Democrats' position on industrial relations legislation indicate they're about to change their original campaign slogan, "Let's keep the bastards honest"? Perhaps there's an advertising agency already test-marketing "Let's keep the bastards wealthy".