Reith Serves Second Wave In Slices

Date: 11 May 2000

New industrial laws introduced into Parliament today are Peter Reith's second wave in slices.

Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Arch Bevis, said today that Mr Reith is taking the 'slice the salami' approach to his failed legislation, and will now serve it up a piece at a time.

"The Labor Party made it quite clear last year that we would not support any move by Mr Reith that would further reduce the independence of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, Mr Bevis said.

"Further, Labor has consistently supported the notion that parties should be free to seek to negotiate agreements that are best suited to their needs.

"Despite the findings of the Labor and Democrat Senators resulting from the comprehensive inquiry into the second wave legislation, it appears that the Government is set to return to the scene of the crime.

"Last year, it was clear that the provisions on 'pattern bargaining' sought by Mr Reith were flawed and would unnecessarily direct the independent commission.

"Instead of spending his time finding new ways to undermine workers conditions and rights, Mr Reith should honour his commitment to introduce laws to protect workers when companies go broke. On 31 August last year, Mr Reith announced that he intended to have legislation in the Parliament dealing with the protection of employee entitlements. Nearly 10 months later, we still haven't seen any legislation to deal with this issue - but Mr Reith has found time to persist with his biased and divisive program.

"Labor will carefully scrutinise the bill but would not support any legislation that further reduced opportunities for Australian workers to protect or improve their terms and conditions of employment," Mr Bevis said.

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For further information

Contact:	David Tansey
Union:	ALP Federal
Phone:	(02) 6277 4518
Fax:	(02) 6277 8534
Email:	david.tansey@aph.gov.au
WWW:	http://www.alp.org.au

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