New Senate may push IR change

    by: Christian Kerr and Michael Owen
    From: The Australian
    June 10, 2013


TONY Abbott's workplace relations package could still pass the Senate, despite Greens opposition, if the Coalition wins the September poll, crossbencher Nick Xenophon has declared.      

Senator Xenophon, who faces a brutal battle with Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young to retain his South Australian position, believes the Coalition could come close to winning half the seats in the 76-member Senate and Bob Katter's star recruit, country singer James Blundell, stands a good chance of being elected in Queensland.    

If his predictions come true and he is returned, the Coalition could pass its policies with support from independents and minor parties.

ABC election analyst Antony Green endorsed the scenario.

"Tony Abbott needs an alternative path for legislation," he said. "There's a high likelihood in some states there will be minor parties elected."




Senator Xenophon indicated he could back workplace relations reform.

"We now have an industrial relations systems that is less flexible than that in the Hawke-Keating era, and that wouldn't be a bad benchmark to go back to," he told ABC television yesterday.

The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that the Greens would block the cornerstones of the Opposition Leader's workplace policy, including an assault on unions and increased criminal penalties for unlawful conduct.

Deputy leader Adam Bandt said the Greens, who will hold the balance of power in the Senate until at least July next year, would not support four key elements of the Coalition's workplace policy, including changes that would allow workers to trade off conditions, such as penalty rates, more easily.    

Senator Xenophon described penalty rates in the retail and hospitality sector as "a job killer" and warned about productivity issues. He also flagged he would be open to discussion on the carbon tax, saying the environmental benefits were "questionable".    

The popular former independent legislative councillor won a quota in his own right to be elected to the Senate in 2007, despite being grouped below the line on the ballot paper.

Senator Xenophon is forming his own party so he will be above the line on the ballot and voters only need to put a one next to his name, but despite these measures he described his mood as "cautiously pessimistic".

He fears the Greens will preference Labor over him, while Family First preferences and preferences from South Australia's small Nationals will flow straight to the Liberal Party.

Complex preference negotiations between a swarm of micro-parties and independent candidates are under way nationally.

Senator Xenophon warned his rivals against "cynical and unprincipled preference deals that will come out in the course of an election campaign and that will damage their reputations".

Senator Hanson-Young fired the first salvo in a television election campaign war last night with a commercial featuring a caricature of the Opposition Leader cutting services and imploring voters to allow the minor party to keep an eye on him.

She said her seat was "crucial" for the Coalition's bid to control both houses and warned Mr Abbott was "coming to get her".

"If we, as the polls are showing, have a Tony Abbott prime minister then we need to make sure there is a good check on his power in the parliament," she said.

Penalty rates have to go.  They are a blast from the past.

No good having penalty rates if you haven't got a job.

Penalty rates have to go.  They are a blast from the past.
Will Mr Abbott take that to the election, so we know who to vote for?.    

Quote:


Yes Abbott will say "there will be no scrapping of compulsory penalty rates under a Govt I lead"

....and you can be reassured that he won't...Just like Juliar...

As we all knew anyway now Xenophon had declared that he really is a Liberal at heart. Keen to destroy workers rights.

Or is he just blowing in the wind again?

It's common sense.

Why does everything have to boil down to Liberal or Labor?

I'm no Liberal and I'm no Labor.

But we live in a global economy, we need competitive advantage, we need fluid head count costs.

Penalty rates are outdated. They belong back in the dark days of the 1970s.

If you want people to work weekends, you pay your penalty rates.    

2am in Australia is 5pm in London and midday in New York City.

This is a global market economy now. It's the beauty of the market capitalist system, we all compete now in a more aligned market and its much better than 40 years ago when it was all just about domestic market demands.

I'm a walking example you don't need penalty rates to work different hours or weekends.
I sat on a call at 1am for me because I needed to work in with teams in Sydney.

It's just the way it is. Move out if the dark ages dinosaurs!!