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Premier Colin Barnett and the his new Commerce Minister Bill Marmion are sitting on a report containing 198-recommendations to change workplace laws in Western Australia.

The report was written by a former Howard Government industrial relations advocate, who former Minister Troy Buswell appointed in June last year.

The last State Liberal Government introduced individual contracts and cut minimum standards for Western Australian workers and the Howard Government abolished the award safety net with its unfair WorkChoices laws.

Colin Barnett is on record saying he supported WorkChoices.

There is a real danger that Mr Barnett and Mr Marmion will implement WorkChoices style changes in Western Australia that will see minimum standards cut for up to 300,000 Western Australian workers.

There is also a very real danger that the introduction of WorkChoices style changes and the cutting of minimum standards for more than 120,000 public sector workers in Western Australia could make it harder to recruit people in the new Gorgon-led boom and could impact adversely on important public services, including health, education, policing, child protection, mine safety and environmental protection.
 

Recent Blog Entries

Barnett & Abbott hide secret plan to bring back WorkChoices for West Australian workers
Monday, 9 August 2010 8:35:01 AM
The West Australian Liberal leader Colin Barnett and his federal counterpart Tony Abbott are hiding a secret plan to bring back WorkChoices for West Australian workers say unions. More than 300,000 West Australian workers are in danger of losing penalty rates, overtime pay, public holiday pay and their protection from unfair dismissal from the WA Government’s planned industrial relations changes. The President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions Ged Kearney joined WA workers in a protest outside Colin Barnett’s Perth office on Monday the 9th of August calling for the release of the plan.
Buswell’s budget-management credibility shattered again
Wednesday, 17 March 2010 8:07:21 AM
Treasurer Troy Buswell’s budget-management credibility has been shattered again by revelations that he has allowed the cost of his review into the State’s industrial relations system to blow out by more than 60 per cent. Documents obtained by UnionsWA under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws reveal that Mr Buswell failed to put a contract in place to manage the cost of the review, which was performed by Melbourne based lawyer Stephen Amendola. Without a contract in place, the cost of the review blew out from the $500,000 verbally quoted by Mr Amendola to more than $850,000. UnionsWA Secretary Simone McGurk said that Mr Buswell’s scant regard for taxpayers’ money would be deeply offensive to workers providing health, education, child protection and other essential public services, who Mr Buswell has savaged through his arbitrary 3 per cent budget cuts.
IR review cost blowout as government services starved of cash
Wednesday, 17 February 2010 12:44:33 PM
The cost of Treasurer Troy Buswell’s review of Western Australia’s industrial relations system blew out by more than $200,000 in just two days, according to information obtained under Freedom of Information laws. The review will affect the working conditions of more than 300,000 workers and recommend changes in areas including individual versus collective agreements, the award safety net, minimum wages, statutory minimum conditions of employment and unfair dismissal. In an answer given to the Parliament on 25 November last year, the Parliamentary Secretary representing Mr Buswell in the Legislative Council, Hon Helen Morton MLC, reported that the review had cost $600,346. However, in documents obtained by UnionsWA under Freedom of Information laws, it has been revealed that, as at 27 November, invoices from Mr Amendola alone totalled $849,817.