Federal opposition IR spokesperson, Julie Bishop, formally announced that the Coalition had dropped its opposition to the Labor government's plan to "abolish" Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts) on February 19.
After apparently being rolled by her shadow-cabinet colleagues — who argued that the opposition's previous plan to try to force the government to keep (pre-Work Choices) AWAs was a dud — Bishop announced that the Coalition would now support the Workplace Relations Amendment Bill, while making one amendment.
Bishop announced that the Coalition would move an amendment which would see the life of the government's AWA clones — Interim Transitional Employment Agreements (ITEAs, which may be used by bosses who employ just one employee on an AWA — be increased from two years to five, to ensure greater "flexibility" for employers. If the amendment is not accepted by the government (and it has indicated it won't be), the Coalition will support the legislation anyway, after it passes a senate committee in May.
Labor has made merry with the Coalition's dithering. PM Kevin Rudd said "we've had flip, flop and flap when it comes to the whole question of WorkChoices and the future of AWAs. I gather we're up to the flap stage", after the backflip was announced.
The Coalition's change of heart reflects the sympathetic reception given to the "transitional" legislation by big business. While the government has claimed that its legislation is "abolishing" Work Choices, it actually leaves many of the worst aspects (particularly attacks on unions) in place.
The plan to allow ITEAs to run for a further two years, to strip awards and insist that all awards and Enterprise Bargaining Agreements contain a "flexibility" clause (allowing workers to individually trade-off conditions with bosses) and the insistence on retaining common law individual contracts, gives bosses back most of the "flexibility" they lose with the formal repeal of AWAs.