Last week, Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash and shadow minister Tony Burke joined political and organisation leaders at the Australian Institute of Employment Rights’ 11th annual Ron McCallum Debate. 

Chaired by the president of the Fair Work Commission, the “Are we still the lucky country? The Future of Workplace Relations in Australia” debate explored the Australian employment market post-pandemic and how it’s been impacted.

In the introduction of the topic, executive director of the AIER James Fleming said that “there is a common perception in Australia, that ours is the lucky country, a land with broadly shared prosperity that has avoided many of the problems faced by other nations”.

“However, when Donald Horne coined that phrase the lucky country to describe Australia in his influential 1964 book of that name, he actually meant it ironically – it was meant as a rebuke and a wakeup call as an indictment of our society,” he said.

“We’ve had a global pandemic, the first recession in 30 years, there’s a growing divide in the labour market, and we’re facing catastrophic climate change and economic disruption and digital revolution. So tonight, we ask, has our luck run out? Are we complacent in the face of significant problems? If we are the lucky country, lucky for whom? And we’ll be looking at these questions through an industrial relations lens. What role can the industrial relations system play in Australia’s shared prosperity?”

In a keynote address to the debate, Ms Cash argued that in the face of the pandemic, Australians have shown “remarkable resilience” and “this is not the result of luck but one of decisive action, by governments, employers and employees” to maintain jobs.

“A strong economy in the pandemic has meant that the government could extend safety-net support to those employers and employees who were hit hardest through no fault of their own,” she said.

VIEW ALL

“Only three months after the economy went into recession, Australia’s economy showed its resilience, with two consecutive quarters of GDP growth above 3 per cent. In June 2021, 12 months after reaching a pandemic-driven 20-year high in the unemployment rate, the unemployment rate fell to 4.9 per cent lower than the pre-pandemic levels. We recognise that the impacts of recent lockdowns across Australia are continuing to unfold, but I’m confident that we are taking the right steps to ensure that we’re on the path to economic recovery.

“My confidence stems from the fact that the Australian government has and will continue to provide a strong economic framework that backs employers to prosper, grow and create more jobs for Australians. Our economic recovery was not the result of mere chance or luck, but one of a concerted whole of government community effort,” the Attorney-General added.

Mr Burke said that in the lead up to the next election, “both sides will be talking about jobs but only Labor will be talking about secure jobs”.

“While COVID didn’t create insecure work, it certainly put a spotlight on it. COVID stress tested every workplace to determine who was secure, who was essential and which workers would be cast aside,” he said.

Whilst over a million casual workers found themselves ineligible for job keeper and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the job losses, “during the recovery, casual employment surged back … and the rate of multiple job holding is now the highest it has been since ABS records began,” according to Mr Burke.

However, he warned that unless there’s “active intervention, there’s every indication insecure work is only going to get worse”.

Innes Willox, the chief executive of Ai Group, added that the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way that Australia works – and brought the future of work and the digital revolution forward several years.

“There’s no going back on many of the changes brought by the pandemic. Workplaces and workforces will never be the same again.

“The pandemic has fundamentally changed a lot around what Australia is and how Australia operates. We need workplace laws and an award system that fundamentally recognises that the recent acceleration in digital technologies has occurred and is continuing to grow at pace,” he said.

“Australia is a lucky country. No doubt about it. But that luck is not guaranteed. The workplace relations system is a core component, not the only one of us continuing to ride on our luck in the years ahead. We need to adapt and change and be prepared to be flexible about how we do that to gain the best of the opportunities that lie ahead.”

Furthermore, Ms Cash concluded her keynote with a positive note on teamwork – which she said has helped both businesses and employees get through the pandemic.

“Since March 2020, we’ve seen many instances of employers and employees coming together in their individual workplaces to implement sensible solutions to the evolving challenges posed by the pandemic,” she said.

“Working together for the collective good kept us going through the early stages of the pandemic, and continued cooperation will lead us out of the pandemic. No matter how you define lucky, I’m sure we can all agree that our nation and our economy has shown its strength and resilience in weathering the worst of the pandemic.”