11 April 2022
The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has visited the Governor-General, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), and writs were issued for a Federal Election to be held on 21 May 2022.
This election will be held in an Australia that is facing, what must feel to many of us, a very challenging and complicated world — the erosion of the rules-based order with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on-going and persistent tensions in Australia’s relationship with China, the trials of exiting the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, inflation, rising interest rates and energy costs, and challenges in supply chains from shortages of labour.
Organisations have much to contemplate — and we will continue to hear lots about these issues in the election campaign.
Unlike other elections, workplace regulation is unlikely to feature prominently. This is, however, concerning as the current system has shown itself to not be suitable to meeting the demands of tomorrow. The system is complex with significant compliance challenges and in many areas it is not keeping up with the needs of employers or workers. For example, collective bargaining is not generating productivity gains and has stalled as a means to drive flexibility and better jobs. It is a system that has not yet delivered the required certainty to support the delivery of Australia’s vast infrastructure needs. It does not facilitate flexible work patterns for workers.
Yet, whilst there is unlikely to be a heavy focus on labour reforms, the reality is that this remains a key issue for business. And in this fog Labor have not been idle. They have quietly put out a series of positions that with election to government are likely to be framed as a mandate for significant workplace change.
The return of a Coalition Government presents a more modest agenda and one businesses are urging to raise its ambition. The Coalition have indicated that they will instead again push for the Omnibus Bill measures rejected just last year and further more modest reform in targeted areas, including improvements to the National Employment Standards (NES).
The importance of workplace regulatory system to supporting the growth and success of Australia remains – and is something many businesses and organisations are watching keenly. To help you better understand what the next few years may bring and how they could impact your operations, our national Employment and Labour team will publish a series of articles leading up to the election, tracking the key proposals for workplace change.
Our aim is to break these topics down for you and identify impacts and opportunities. Specifically:
The ambition of Labor should not be ignored by employers and they will need to pay attention to the clear and discernible impact they are likely to have on the economy and their operations. These are changes that all employers should be across, in order to understand how they might impact existing strategies and business plans.
Our team has been actively tracking all public comments on workplace issues for an extended period, making us well placed to break down what you need to know.
Our approach will be to describe the proposals, how they change the status quo, identify the policy objectives behind them, and then canvass various potential consequences. Specific industries or sectors will be identified as those most likely impacted.
This article is part of our Australian Federal Election 2022 Insight collection. Read more here.
Authors
Head of Employment and Labour
Partner
Tags
This publication is introductory in nature. Its content is current at the date of publication. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. You should always obtain legal advice based on your specific circumstances before taking any action relating to matters covered by this publication. Some information may have been obtained from external sources, and we cannot guarantee the accuracy or currency of any such information.