UNIONS must be prohibited from abusing enterprise bargaining to restrict businesses from using commercial contracting and labour hire arrangements, the resource industry’s national employer group AMMA has told the Australian Government.

In its submission on the exposure draft of the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Competition Policy Review) Bill 2016, AMMA strongly supports the government’s move to increase penalties for illegal secondary boycotts, but says union attempts to use enterprise bargaining to restrict the use of contractors and labour hire must also be addressed.
 
“Resource employers welcome the government acting to subject secondary boycotts to the same maximum penalties as cartel behaviour, price fixing, and other anti-competitive activities,” says AMMA’s head of policy, Scott Barklamb.
 
“As we see with the CFMEU’s alleged boycott of Boral, currently playing out before the courts, no one ever wins in secondary boycotts.  Updated penalties will help deter cynical coercive strategies and ensure employers and customers that have nothing to do with a dispute don’t become collateral damage.
 
“Having said that, when the government acts on secondary boycotts, it must also act on anti-contractor and anti-labour hire clauses, or it risks leaving the job half done.
 
“Unions shouldn’t be telling businesses who they can trade with, and they shouldn’t be able to abuse the enterprise bargaining system to lock employees and job seekers out of work.”
 
Both the Harper Review on competition policy and the Productivity Commission review on workplace relations recommended outlawing unions from abusing enterprise bargaining to restrict commercial contracting and labour hire arrangements.
 
AMMA urges the government to adopt Harper review recommendation 37 which would extend the application of prohibitions under s45E and s45EA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA) to industrial agreements and awards.
 
At the same time, the government should draft legislation in line with the Productivity Commission’s review of Australia’s WR system to prohibit agreement clauses that seek to restrict the use of contractors and labour hire arrangements.

www.amma.org.au

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THE full schedule for OzPod 2016, an invigorating and inspiring day for Australia’s podcast and radio industries, is now available.

OzPod host ABC Radio will welcome contributors and guests from the commercial, public, community, indie and wider audio sectors to a wide-ranging celebration of the podcast, exploring everything from audience acquisition and retention, approaches to measurement, new technologies, the rise of the podcast in traditional media, revenue opportunities and the art of storytelling.

TRANSPORT operators, associations and government bodies have been given the opportunity to help the NTC develop a new framework that will help define and measure Australia’s land transport productivity.

Chief Executive of the NTC Paul Retter said the framework would help governments and industry keep track of Australia’s land transport productivity performance and help governments make better laws and regulations, infrastructure investment decisions and operational improvements to Australia’s transport network.

He said the framework will also give industry decision-makers better information to help them make the best possible operational and business investment decisions.

“There is an old saying that you can’t really improve what you don’t measure,” Mr Retter said.

“This project will help us define and measure land transport productivity so we can ensure Australia’s strategies, action plans and future decisions deliver the benefits we need.”

The NTC is asking relevant stakeholders to answer a range of questions to help develop the framework including:

•          What factors should be included?

•          Can current productivity measures be applied and do we need to supplement them?

•          How should the information be collected and presented?

•          How would you use the productivity framework?

The National Land Transport Productivity Framework Issues Paper is available here.

Stakeholders can make a submission via the NTC’s website before 5pm, Thursday 6 October 2016.

The framework will be presented to transport ministers at the Transport and Infrastructure Council meeting scheduled for November 2017.

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THE Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has today announced a number of public hearings on the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The newly elected Committee Chair, Stuart Robert MP, announced the dates for the public hearings, and emphasised the importance of the two agreements for Australia.

“The Committee is using the evidence gathered by the Committee in the last Parliament, as well as these additional public hearings, to undertake a thorough and timely inquiry,” Mr Robert said.

Mr Robert said people interested in the Committee’s inquiries should visit the Treaties Committee’s website for further information.

Public hearings on the TPP:

26 September 2016         9.30 am      Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices, 1 Bligh St, Sydney
5 October 2016               9.30 am      Parliament House, Perth
7 October 2016               1.00 pm      Parliament House, Melbourne
17 October 2016             9.00 am       Parliament House, Canberra

Public hearings on the Paris Agreement:

27 September 2016         9.30 am        Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices, Bligh St, Sydney
28 September 2016         9.00 am        Parliament House, Canberra
6 October 2016              1.00 pm        Parliament House, Melbourne

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