Despite the controversy over multi-employer bargaining, higher wages are likely to come from other provisions in the Albanese government’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill.
On the industrial relations bill, Labor’s most difficult legislative challenge so far, the government hasn’t targeted crossbencher Jacqui Lambie. Pocock is an easier dance partner.
In a Monday speech to the International Trade Union Confederation, the prime minister lists measures the government has introduced into parliament “in the past month”
Industrial relations is one of the perennial fault lines in Australian politics. As some battles get settled, fresh ones arise, often involving similar issues, in the enduring argument about growing and sharing the economic pie.
Denmark has the type of industrial relations system the government wants to move to. It has fewer industrial disputes than Australia, lower unemployment, and similar wages growth.