Letter From Australia (About Dinosaurs)

The Not-So-Lucky Country

PIERS AKERMAN
The Sunday Telegraph
October 12, 2013

[In New Zealand, the union movement has routinely criticised New Zealand for having wages set significantly lower than Australia.  Thousands of kiwis have crossed the ditch in search not only of employment, but of higher wages offered in that country.  But there is another side to the story.  Australia is starting to price itself out of world markets, due to its high wage policies.  Piers Akerman argues that you can blame the trade unions and the collusion of  big business--who have gone along to get along.  More fools them.  Ed.]

IF your son or daughter can't find an entry-level job in the restaurant or tourism industry as the school year comes to an end, you can blame the dinosaurs in the trade union movement, Labor's Fair Work commissioner Anne Gooley and Big Business.  Nothing chokes new employment in these areas more than Gooley's decision to ignore calls to alter the current job-destroying penalty rate regime and reject the argument for reduced employment costs and more jobs.


With pay loadings for weekend work and public holidays now reaching 250 per cent, it is not economically feasible for many employers to keep their businesses open when demand should logically be highest.  Under the past six wasted years of Labor governments, growth in the tourism sector has been choked. The existing award rate of $34 an hour for wait staff working Sundays effectively kills such jobs.

As Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said, the decision "is extremely disappointing. It's out of touch, it reflects the entrenched attitudes in the nation's industrial tribunals to the changed conditions in the nation's service industries," he said. "It shows a deafness to the realities of modern employment and ignores those who want to work.  It displays a 'we know better' than either the staff or the employers, and reveals antiquated industrial attitudes." . . .

"We have gone from a banana republic-type analogy to a more southern European type analogy," Malcolm Broomhead, of transport giant Asciano, said on Thursday.  "We now have an inflexible workforce, a high-cost workforce, an ageing population and a welfare mentality we just can't afford."

All true, but governments act when there is demonstrable political will in the community and big business has only now emerged from hiding after ignoring the realities of Labor's crippling policies. The Fair Work decision is just one reminder of the cost of the failure of the business lobby to represent its membership in the face of union-friendly policies. The damage done by Labor and unions to struggling tourism in the area of coastal shipping is another.

A comparison of port costs for the potentially lucrative cruise sector was presented at a recent conference and it showed why Singapore ($11,660 for a 100-150 guest ship) would be favoured over Sydney ($52,700) or Brisbane ($52,960). Pilotage in Singapore ($800), Sydney ($3800). Berthing in Singapore ($2700), Sydney ($24,500) and Brisbane ($39,375).

The dead hand of the Maritime Union can be blamed for these restrictions on growth. . . .  But shortsighted business figures and their willingness to cosy up to Labor for the last lost six years cannot be excused for their wilful complicity in the destruction of the job market. They may want change now, but they should have put some skin in the game when it counted.

Labor and the unions have shown consistently they'd rather see businesses close than make it easier for workers to get jobs. Only now is the business lobby seeing how it damaged itself with its policy to appease Labor policy, and those seeking jobs will be the one paying the price for this folly.