‘Next level weird’: MP’s ‘extinction’ comments slammed - NEWS.com.au

COVID-ravaged businesses face an “extinction level event” if Labor passes its industrial relations proposal, the Attorney-General claims.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese will unveil his vision for the Australian workplace on Wednesday evening, warning Scott Morrison he faces a “heavyweight title fight” over worker rights at the next election.

His pitch centres on plans to develop portable annual, sick, and long-service leave to insecure workers, and limit fixed-term contracts to two years.

But Attorney-General Christian Porter claimed the suite of proposals would allow 3.5 million casuals to “double dip” on entitlements, slugging businesses with an extra $20bn in taxes every year.

RELATED: Albanese draws election battlelines with workers’ rights plan

“That would be an extinction level event for tens of thousands of Australian businesses,” Mr Porter said on Wednesday.

“You have Australian business who have just struggled their way through a health pandemic, that are now fighting their way out of a COVID-19-caused recession.

“(Now) you have an opposition leader promising that he will give them a tax of up to $20bn on all Australian businesses per year if he won an election.”

Mr Porter said Labor’s plan would enshrine a “bizarre” system in which casual workers were entitled to more benefits than a permanent worker.

But Labor industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke dismissed the appearance “one of the strangest things I’ve even seen”.

He insisted Labor had simply proposed to work with states and territories to expand portable leave, which already existed in numerous industries.

“What we saw from Christian Porter in that media conference was absolutely next-level weird,” he told the ABC.

“He invented a policy that’s not ours, got it costed, and then got really worked up about the cost of the policy he had invented.

“He either knew he was lying, or the bloke’s just lost it.”

The government brought its own IR omnibus bill to parliament in December, including a bid to suspend the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) in some circumstances.

Labor has staunchly opposed the change, which the government argued was necessary to unclog an enterprise bargaining system which had become cumbersome.

The government also planned to redefine “casual work” as a role accepted with no expectation of indefinite work.

Bosses would be forced to offer part-time or full time work to casual workers deemed to have regular shifts after 12 months.

Mr Albanese pledged to implement a test to determine whether workers could be considered casual, arguing gig economy workers were not protected under current arrangements.

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2021-02-10 07:27:00Z
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