The release of the Productivity Commission's five issues papers on workplace reform signals the belated firing of the starting gun on debate about industrial relations in 2015.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And while the commission's accidental publication of the papers online more than a dozen hours before the embargo was to be lifted typifies the Abbott government's current Murphy's Law run of luck, the battlelines have been drawn for debate about fairness and industrial relations reform.
The much-delayed review presents opportunities and dangers to the Abbott government.
Business, a core constituency of the Coalition, was disappointed with the limited scope of the government's first-term industrial relations agenda. It has pinned its hopes on more ambition in the second term.
The scope of the commission review is broad: penalty rates, the minimum wage, workplace flexibility, the enterprise bargaining system, the use of individual agreements between employers and employees, unfair dismissal and anti-bullying laws and public sector employment issues will all be examined.
A significant cohort of economically dry backbench Liberal MPs will be hoping the similarly dry commission recommends business-friendly changes, such as a relaxing penalty rates requirements on weekends and perhaps in regional areas.
But Abbott and his Employment Minister Eric Abetz - who said last year he had neutralised the prospect of a joint Labor/union "return to Workchoices" scare campaign - are aware of the political dangersthe review poses.
The commission's chairman, Peter Harris, is aware of its reputation as an economically dry body and emphasises he understands the "human" dimension of laws that govern how 11.5 million or so Australians work. But it's likely the commission will recommend at least some business-friendly changes.
Abbott, Abetz and company will not attempt to implement any changes recommended by the review until the next election campaign. They will be bracing for another political campaign from the left that raises the spectre of Workchoices even as they mull what to do heading into the election due in 2016.
Doing nothing is not an option for the Coalition. But the path to further workplace reform is littered with landmines and the government knows it will need to tread carefully.
