In his springtime jobs and skills summit, Anthony Albanese knows 'it's the economy, stupid', but that smart politics can help.
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Despite media cynicism, his mega-talkfest was a winner even before any structural improvements it delivered. Or failed to.
While legislated changes may yet fall short of dramatic, it was (and is) worth the attempt because the old way was getting us nowhere.
Simpler employment rules aimed at the sweet-spot of higher pay and greater productivity, can lift growth, help budget repair, and validate the Prime Minister's consensus approach into the bargain. Good economics. Even better politics.
Albanese has long praised Bob Hawke's penchant for dialogue over the trench warfare which too easily blights union-employer relations. And he wouldn't mind Hawke's electoral success either.
Albanese is right when he says Australians have conflict fatigue. The positive response to last weekend's Insiders program showed that clearly when the BCA's Jennifer Westacott and the ACTU's Sally McManus dialled down the bombast and delivered respectful content.
The contrast with the usual triumphalism and exaggeration of a Sunday morning was pretty stark (I'm looking at you Barnaby!).
How much of that improvement is down to the atmosphere engendered by the new government - as distinct from the fact that these critical organisations are run by intelligent women - can be debated. But it certainly didn't hurt to have a government actively encouraging the parties to talk, while providing the nationally televised stage on which to do it.
Spooked, the Coalition took to calling the meeting, a "union" summit. Cue division.
Yet it was the Coalition that was divided, with Nationals leader David Littleproud taking part while Peter Dutton sat it out and his Liberal deputy Susan Ley sniped about sharing a room with "union thugs".
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The Opposition nonetheless flagged support for an increased skilled permanent migration cap to 195,000 and would look favourably at industrial relations reform which relieves the compliance burden on business.
Work that out.
Notwithstanding the usual competitive jealousies between employer peak bodies, most conducted themselves with a spirit of constructive engagement entering into positive discussions on long-running bugbears like the "better-off-overall-test", which employers say has made enterprise level bargaining too hard to bother with.
Small business through its peak body, COSBOA, reached agreement with the ACTU for so-called "multi-employer bargaining" allowing for standard rates and conditions across multiple employers.
Yet sector-wide and so-called pattern bargaining has the main employer groups profoundly worried.
The challenge now is two-fold: to keep the positive momentum flowing when negotiations stall, and of course, to manage such failures against this new optimism. Disappointment in politics can be as deadly as division.
Mark Kenny
Mark Kenny is The Canberra Times' political analyst and a professor at the ANU's Australian Studies Institute. He hosts the Democracy Sausage podcast. He writes a column every Sunday.
Mark Kenny is The Canberra Times' political analyst and a professor at the ANU's Australian Studies Institute. He hosts the Democracy Sausage podcast. He writes a column every Sunday.
