DAVID SPEARS: The Government meantime is keen to show it’s getting on with the job. It released its ten minimum working conditions- National Employment Standards. These long awaited ten conditions will form the basis of all workplace agreements under the Federal industrial relations system. The Deputy Prime Minister and Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard spoke to me a short time ago.
Julia Gillard thanks for your time. If I can start with Belinda Neal, a couple of questions that remain unanswered after Question Time. As far as you’re aware, were the members of her staff who signed statutory declarations defending her behaviour, were they told to do that?
JULIA GILLARD: Well this is a matter currently being investigated by the police so I think it’s appropriate that the police be allowed to do their work and that was the point that the government was making in Question Time today.
DAVID SPEARS: But are they investigating that?
JULIA GILLARD: I am not going speculate on any of the case on this matter. It’s before the police that’s where it’s going to be dealt with. The police know their job, they know their business, they’ll get on with it and that’s the way it should go.
DAVID SPEARS: But as far as you’re aware are there any ministerial instructive?
JULIA GILLARD: Look they don’t need politicians trampling all over the top of this. They just need to be allowed to get on with their job.
DAVID SPEARS: But you don’t know either way whether they were told by any minister’s staff to put those statutory declarations…
JULIA GILLARD: I am not going to speculate on any of the facts on this matter. It’s before the police and that’s what’s appropriate.
DAVID SPEARS: The Opposition also suggested that there be a Federal Police investigation to see if any Commonwealth laws have been broken. Because presumably the New South Wales police investigation won’t do that.
JULIA GILLARD: Well I am sure the New South Wales police if they suspect that there has been a breach of Federal law will refer the matter. Of course any individual could refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police should they choice to do so. But the matter is being investigated by the police and the view of the government as shown in Question Time today is that we’ve just got to let the investigation go through.
DAVID SPEARS: But the Government won’t be referring that to the Federal Police?
JULIA GILLARD: This is not an unknown process. In the last Parliament when Mr Howard was the Prime Minister and some of the people who were moaning and complaining today on the Opposition benches were Cabinet Ministers, there were members of the then government investigated by the police and…
DAVID SPEARS: By the Federal Police?
JULIA GILLARD: Investigated by the police in relation to allegations against them and of course at that stage the investigations proceeded. That was appropriate, what we’re saying is lets just let the police do their job.
DAVID SPEARS: Again, the New South Wales Police can’t investigate the breach of Commonwealth Law which is what the Opposition is suggesting needs to be looked at.
JULIA GILLARD: I am sure that if a police service comes to a conclusion that really a matter needs to be investigated by another agency, it will refer it. If there is any individual who has evidence they think should be looked at by the police then they should feel free to approach police about it.
DAVID SPEARS: Now let’s turn to the ten National Employment Standards you announced today. Can you tell us how the system as you’ve announced today will differ from Work Choices once the Fairness Test was introduced by the Howard Government?
JULIA GILLARD: Well there are some big differences. Under Work Choices there was this thing called the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard; I should say so-called. It reported to guarantee five minimum conditions but when you held them up to the light most of them were tissue thin. What we are guaranteeing is that every employee in the country will have the benefit of our ten National Employment Standards and importantly we’re guaranteeing nothing can strip those standards away.
One of the central vices of Work Choices was that there were Australian Workplace Agreements, individual statutory employment agreements that allowed pay and conditions to be stripped away without compensation. And even after the so called Fairness Test which was just a pre-election panic by the former government, even after the so called Fairness Test, there were conditions that could be stripped away for no compensation or no proper compensation.
DAVID SPEARS: Business was very worried about what you’d do on this particularly they were worried where an employer and employee do want to remove a condition and have some other sort of arrangement that flexibility would go. So can a worker if they do want to give up some penalty rates for more pay or whatever can they still do that?
JULIA GILLARD: Well what we are saying about our system is that it will be both fair and flexible. Every worker will have the benefit of the ten National Employment Standards, workers who earn $100,000 or less will have the benefit of modern, simply awards. There will be the ability to make individual flexibility arrangements under modern simple awards. But what the government…
DAVID SPEARS: You can’t trade away any of these ten conditions?
JULIA GILLARD: No, everybody’s got to get the benefit of the ten conditions, absolutely, that will be guaranteed by law and we think that is appropriate. Modern awards will deal with additional matters, they will actually deal with penalty rates and overtime and the like and they will be appropriate for the industry and occupation that their regulating. What we said to employers before the election and we continue to say it to them is we want to have a modern, simple safety net. People can be paid above the safety net but what we want to make sure if that every Australian worker has a safety net that can’t be stripped away from them. We understand the need for individual flexibilities, that’s what award flexibility clauses will deal with but we won’t tolerate the thing that Work Choices not only made legal but the former government, the Liberal Government delighted in and that was the stripping away of basic conditions from workers without compensation or proper compensation.
DAVID SPEARS: You told Sky News in April that you could guarantee no worker would be worse off because of your industrial relations polices. Do you stand by that guarantee?
JULIA GILLARD: I can certainly guarantee that there’s nothing in the operation of Labor’s system that is going to make people worse off. We’re designing a system that’s fair and flexible and is there to give people rights. We’re getting out of the abuses of Work Choices, we’re sweeping them away. Of course people will change jobs, you might decided tomorrow you don’t like this any more and decide to take a job as a childcare worker well you’d earn less. Those things will happen in time in the employment market but what I can guarantee to you and to every other Australian worker is whatever job you go into, whatever employment circumstance you put yourself in there will be a fair safety net which is supporting you and which no one can strip away from you.
DAVID SPEARS: Just finally one of these new conditions is the 38 hour working week- maximum 38 working week. That sends a pretty powerful message that you don’t want people overworked but does that apply to the Federal Public Service. I mean we hear reports that they work around the clock under this government.
JULIA GILLARD: Well as was noted by the Secretary of Treasury at the time that these matters were remarked on publicly, it’s not unusual for public servants in the run up to Budgets and the like to work for long periods of time. What we’re saying is we think that there needs to be reasonable hours at work. 38 hours is now the accepted full time working week. We understand that in some businesses people need to work beyond that. We’re saying that there are question of how reasonable that is and a set of factors which will go to that question of reasonableness. One of the factors of course is the level of responsibility and remuneration of the employee involved and so you would expect whether its in the public service or in the private sector or various professionals in our community; lawyers or doctors who are working as employees that there will be times that they work quite long hours but that’s inherit in their remuneration package.
DAVID SPEARS: Alright Julia Gillard thanks very much.
JULIA GILLARD: Thank you.
ENDS