Jake Thrupp
McManus wants wages to keep up with inflation and social benefits and income support to be fully and promptly indexed to the actual consumer prices paid by recipients. That’s a sure way of fueling inflation. I said it in my editorial and I’ll say it again. The only game in town is the P word. Productivity. How do we make Australia productive again? Let’s increase the supply of cheap and reliable baseload power for starters. Let’s also wind back social welfare, and this dependency on government. There are jobs galore in this country, but no takers. We must ask ourselves why that is. The Sunday Mail columnist Peter Gleason got it right when he wrote, quote, “Why would anybody want to drag themselves out of bed, stand on their feet all day to cut people’s hair, albeit for good money now, when they can continue to bludge off the public purse,” unquote. He went on, quote, “The big challenge for Australia is not wages growth, it’s actually getting people off their backsides to work,” unquote. Spot on Gleaso. We don’t have a skills shortage in this country. That’s fake news. We have a manpower shortage. The people are here already but the past two years has destroyed work ethic. My next guest is the Liberal Senator for Western Australia, Michaelia Cash. First elected in 2007, she was the Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations in the previous Morrison Government. Prior to entering parliament, Senator Cash was a senior lawyer at law firm Freehills practicing employment and industrial law. She holds an honours degree in law from the University of London and a Bachelor of Arts from Curtin University in Perth. Senator Cash is now the Opposition’s industrial relations spokeswoman, and I’m pleased to say she joins me here on ADH TV. Michaelia Cash, thanks for your time.
Senator Cash
It is fabulous to be with you, Jake.
Jake Thrupp
Look, just before we get on to the topic of jobs and militant unions, the Liberal Party in Western Australia was obliterated at the last state election. We just had a federal election where the Liberals lost as well. But how do you grow both the Liberal Party and the National Party in WA, when both leaders are from the same state and both of their deputies are from the same state? Wouldn’t it make sense to have you, a senior WA Liberal, as Deputy Leader?
Senator Cash
I love being a Senator for Western Australia. And I have to say I think we have a fantastic leadership team. In Peter Dutton and Susan Ley. You are right though, the Western Australian Liberal Party, we were taught a very hard lesson by the people of Western Australia at both the state election and the recent federal election. We need to listen to the very clear message that they have sent us and act upon it. But I have to say, having Peter Dutton as the leader and Sussan Ley as the deputy leader, people are absolutely energized in particular in terms of the policies that we’re going to be taking forward. And just to pick up what you said in your editorials, because you are right, what do Australians want from the Albanese Government? Well, Jake, you and I know but two hours ago, we saw the Reserve Bank lift interest rates yet again. Australians are facing the prospect of life getting even more expensive under the Albanese Government. And yet after the summit that they had last week, what have we seen? We have seen a capitulation to the ACTU and literally the promise to legislate industry wide bargaining which, as you and I know, it will shut down the economy. So much for the P word, productivity; it is going to be non existent under the Albanese Government.
Jake Thrupp
Well you’re a fighter and that’s why we love you. So speaking of fights, you just mentioned the unions. Wasn’t Labor’s Jobs Summit just some more public platform for trade unionists like Sally McManus to dictate economic policy in this country?
Senator Cash
Well Jake, look at the guest list, because the guest list almost tells you what the outcome was going to be. So small businesses, they represent, let’s say around 41% of Australians. One seat at Labor’s Jobs Summit. And then you look at the union movement. Now union membership in the private sector in Australia is less than 10% of the workforce. So did they get that representation? No. They got around 33 of the seats, which is in excess of 25% of the representation. So this wasn’t a summit for people to come together and talk about policy ideas, as Mr. Albanese said. Get that higher productivity, get those wages moving, get that full employment. This was literally a summit to get people together just to remind them that this is an endorsement of the ACTU’s policies and the number one policy being a return to the 70s and 80s and industry wide shutdowns.
Jake Thrupp
Just on that multi-employer bargaining or industry wide bargain, as they’re calling it. You just said it will take us back to the 1970s. I totally agree. But where on earth are the employer groups? They should be jumping up and down about this?
Senator Cash
Well I think finally what you’ve seen from the employer groups, but a few days after the announcement, and in particular, looking at the front page of The Australian today, when you have a senior union member in Australia coming out and saying, “Absolutely, there is going to be industry wide strikes once the Albanese Government legislates industry wide bargaining.” I think they’re finally working out that literally what they were offered, by way of some modest changes to the Better Off Overall Test, which we actually brought to the Parliament, Jake, 18 months ago. So I think that’s further proof that 18 months ago, we brought to the Parliament modest changes to the BOOT that would have got more enterprise agreements being signed, that would have got productivity moving, that would have then seen those higher wages. And what did Mr. Albanese and Labor do at the time? They opposed it for political reasons every step of the way. I say to Labor, if you really want to get wages moving in this country, if you really want those higher productivity returns, Jake, bring in the changes the Coalition proposed 18 months ago next week to the Parliament, and let’s legislate them. But you see they won’t do that because that’s not what the ACTU wants. And given the millions of dollars that the union movement in Australia give to the Australian Labor Party, they need to pay their paymasters and you don’t pay that with good Coalition policy.
Jake Thrupp
Well, that brings me to my next question actually, Michaelia, because I couldn’t believe that Labor’s Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, Tony Burke described the gig economy as a cancer. The gig economy is an exciting technological development that links buyers with sellers and allows flexibility in work. Michaelia, I think Tony Burke’s real problem here is that gig workers are unlikely to join unions.
Senator Cash
Ah, you hit the nail on the head! But Jake, how would you like to be a person who, as you said, chooses to work in the gig economy. You choose the flexibility that the gig economy offers you and then the Industrial Relations Minister in Australia says the job you do is a cancer. Well guess what, I say shame on you, Minister Burke, because the gig economy, it’s only a very small part of the economy, but it is one that enables that choice for people, it is one that enables flexibility. But ultimately, the reason Labor do not like the gig economy is because it’s not unionised. And with union membership at almost an all time low, what Labor are basically doing for the union movement is saying, “We’re going to help you go on a recruitment drive, so we will actively legislate to destroy those forms of work in Australia that provide flexibility because we don’t like choice, the only choice that we’re going to provide you under the Albanese Government is one where we dictate to you that you join a union.” I mean Jake, do you remember the demands the other day that the union movement put out in relation to, “We’ll agree to an increase in the migration cap, but only if we, the union movement, control our borders, and anyone coming in under the migration program, the skilled migration program, they get a compulsory union induction at the border and probably compulsory union membership.” Seriously? The Anthony Albanese Labor Government, donations come in, policy goes out. But ultimately that doesn’t bode well for the Australian people, particularly in relation to the decision of the Reserve Bank but a few hours ago to increase interest rates.
Jake Thrupp
That’s right, they’re puppets. Now, your chapter in the book Australia Tomorrow is a very important one. In it you reasserted the importance of creating new jobs and the dignity that accompanies work. As a minister in the previous Coalition Government, you were very passionate, I know, about boosting TAFE programs, etc. Do you think Australia has to snap out of this fixation that every student must go to a university to attain a degree they may never use and instead promote a career in the trades?
Senator Cash
Oh, yet again, you’ve hit the nail on the head. That is exactly right. Whether it is the choice of university, or the choice of vocational education and training, they should be seen as equal. In fact, I would go as far as saying, Jake, that what employers are screaming out for at the moment is work-ready employees from day one. And guess what system gives you that? It’s actually the vocational education and training system. And that’s why when I was the Skills Minister, I was absolutely delighted to be part of a government that provided record investment to vocational education and training in Australia. We invested over $7 billion in the training system. We had a record number of Australians in training, I think it was around 220,000 apprentices and trainees. If you recall, we invested in a program called JobTrainer with the states and territories. But what was the key to this program? The key was we provided free training courses, but they had to be in areas of labor market demand. Under the former Coalition Government, we trained you to get a job. And what worries me about Labor’s recent announcement is that the money that they are putting into the system is only going to public providers TAFE, when we know that industry training providers, they actually train around 70% of those in training. So you’ll have a total distortion of the market and that’s something that Australians should worry about. Yeah, that is very interesting. And look, one last one before you go. The government has vowed to shut the Australian Building and Construction Commission as soon as possible. For viewers, this was the watchdog of the construction industry. Michaelia, what effect will this have on productivity? Well it goes back to the key word that you articulated, productivity, which is exactly what you just said. When you hand the building and construction industry over to the most militant union in Australia, all you will see is a loss of productivity. The building and construction industry in Australia employs around 1.15 million workers. It contributes around 9% of our GDP. Why? Why if you wanted to create full employment, why if you want to drive higher wages, why if you want to drive higher productivity, would you put all this at risk? Jake, there is only one answer, because the CFMMEU in Australia provide millions of dollars to the Australian Labor Party, and again, donations come in by way of money from the union movement, and policy goes out. Anthony Albanese has shown in the first 100 days of his Government, whether it’s the ACTU, the AWU, the TWU, the CFMMEU, he will put the interests of the union movement in Australia above the interests of all Australians, and that does not bode well for Australia’s future, and it doesn’t bode well, Jake, for Australians in particular when it comes to what they’re screaming out for. And that is just a plan to address the rising costs of living.
Jake Thrupp
That’s right. And some leadership. Sally McManus is the real Treasurer. Well look, it’s always good to hear from a passionate Liberal. Keep up the fight, and thank you for joining me tonight.
Senator Cash
Great to be with you, Jake. Thank you very much.
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