Make penalties on WFH part of productivity talks, business tells Labor
Employers will push the case for flexibility on hours and penalty rates for people who work from home as part of high-level talks with the Albanese government's new industrial relations minister to lift productivity.
Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth on Tuesday will chair a meeting of the national workplace relations consultative council, including the ACTU and employer groups, where she wants to tackle the economy's flatlining productivity.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
In one awful decision, Albanese has revealed his do-nothing plan
It didn't take long for us to discover what a triumphantly re-elected Labor government would be like. Would Anthony Albanese stick to the plan he outlined soon after the 2022 election of avoiding controversy during his first term so he could consolidate Labor's hold on power, then get on with the big reforms in term two? Or would he decide that his policy of giving no offence to powerful interest groups had been so rapturously received by the voters, he'd stick with it in his new term? Well, now we know. The re-elected government's first big decision is to extend the life of Woodside Energy's North West Shelf gas processing plant on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia for a further 40 years from 2030. What was it you guys said about your sacred commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050? You remember, the commitment that showed you were fair dinkum about combating climate change whereas the Coalition, with its plan to switch to nuclear energy, wasn't? So you're happy for one of the world's biggest liquified natural gas projects still to be pumping out greenhouse gases in 2070, 20 years after it's all meant to be over? Some estimate that the plant will send 4.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, but that's OK because nearly all the gas will be exported. We won't be burning it, our customers will. (Though we don't quite know how we'll ensure their emissions worsen their climate but not ours.) To be fair, had the government failed to extend the project's licence, Woodside would have been ropeable and the West Australian branch of the Labor Party – which I sometimes suspect is a wholly owned subsidiary of the mining industry, or maybe the mining unions – might have seceded. But that's the point. If you want to govern Australia effectively – if you aim to fix our many problems – you have to be prepared to stand up to powerful interest groups. It's now clear Albanese isn't prepared to stand up, but still wants to enjoy the spoils of office. The strange thing is, according to our present law, the environment minister's power to end Woodside's franchise stems only from the project's effect on the environment, not on climate change. But this would have been no impediment to rejecting the continuation.
Sky News AU
4 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Former prime minister Tony Abbott accuses 'quasi-passivist' Albanese government of 'winding down' defence capability
Former prime minister Tony Abbott has accused Labor of taking a "quasi-passivist" approach to managing the Australian Defence Force as he called for an urgent spending increase. Australia's defence spend has been placed under scrutiny in recent days after United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Defence Minister Richard Marles the nation needed to significantly boost investment. Despite the warning, the Albanese government has repeatedly insisted it will not alter its current plans for the ADF - which will not see Australia hit an outlay equivalent to 2.5 per cent of GDP until some time after 2033. Speaking to Sky News Australia, Mr Abbott claimed that decision came with serious risks, including potentially jeopardising one of the nation's most important international alliances. "We do have to spend a lot more on defence," he said. "We are sleepwalking through lotus land to disaster as things stand. We've got to appreciate that the world is getting much more dangerous. It's becoming more dangerous by the day. "So we in this country do need to wake up to ourselves and, frankly, if we want the American alliance to survive we have got to be a much better ally than we look right now." Under President Donald Trump the US has stepped up calls for allied nations to lift spending on defence as high as 3.5 per cent of GDP, hinting those who fail to increase their investment could risk losing some degree of military support or cooperation. Citing the rise of "communist China, fascist Russia and Islamist Iran", Mr Abbott argued Australia was increasingly at risk of exposure to conflict and needed to ensure it was able to be an effective partner to the US and other allies. The former prime minister claimed, however, that Labor instead appeared set on "winding down" the ADF's ability to engage with potential adversaries. Mr Abbott pointed to the government's response to a request for naval support in the Red Sea, with Mr Marles suggesting Australia was not in position to send a frigate to help defend shipping from Houthi militant attacks. "We said that we don't actually have a frigate to send because they're all needed close at home. I happened to be looking out my office window that day and there were five frigates and destroyers tied up at Garden Island," he said. "They weren't doing anything and frankly at least one of them should have been in the Red Sea." The former prime minister added the decision was emblematic of Labor's current approach to defence, before rounding off his criticism with a warning it was weakening the ADF. "I think there's a quasi-passivist element to this government and rather than say no to the Americans, they'd prefer to say: 'We can't'," he said. "That's what they're doing. They are steadily winding down the actual fighting capability of our armed forces."
The Age
4 hours ago
- The Age
In one awful decision, Albanese has revealed his do-nothing plan
It didn't take long for us to discover what a triumphantly re-elected Labor government would be like. Would Anthony Albanese stick to the plan he outlined soon after the 2022 election of avoiding controversy during his first term so he could consolidate Labor's hold on power, then get on with the big reforms in term two? Or would he decide that his policy of giving no offence to powerful interest groups had been so rapturously received by the voters, he'd stick with it in his new term? Well, now we know. The re-elected government's first big decision is to extend the life of Woodside Energy's North West Shelf gas processing plant on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia for a further 40 years from 2030. What was it you guys said about your sacred commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050? You remember, the commitment that showed you were fair dinkum about combating climate change whereas the Coalition, with its plan to switch to nuclear energy, wasn't? So you're happy for one of the world's biggest liquified natural gas projects still to be pumping out greenhouse gases in 2070, 20 years after it's all meant to be over? Some estimate that the plant will send 4.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, but that's OK because nearly all the gas will be exported. We won't be burning it, our customers will. (Though we don't quite know how we'll ensure their emissions worsen their climate but not ours.) To be fair, had the government failed to extend the project's licence, Woodside would have been ropeable and the West Australian branch of the Labor Party – which I sometimes suspect is a wholly owned subsidiary of the mining industry, or maybe the mining unions – might have seceded. But that's the point. If you want to govern Australia effectively – if you aim to fix our many problems – you have to be prepared to stand up to powerful interest groups. It's now clear Albanese isn't prepared to stand up, but still wants to enjoy the spoils of office. The strange thing is, according to our present law, the environment minister's power to end Woodside's franchise stems only from the project's effect on the environment, not on climate change. But this would have been no impediment to rejecting the continuation.
