LAURA JAYES, HOST: Joining me now is the Assistant Trade and Manufacturing minister, Tim Ayres. Tim, great to see you. First of all, I want to get to where the relationship between big business and the government is at. At the moment, they've set out a manifesto, five things that they want to see, you know, big umbrella things that they want to see a change at the next election. Anthony Albanese has also said, Thanks for the suggestions on IR but we're not capitulating on that. What are you willing to listen to big business about?
SENATOR TIM AYRES, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR A FUTURE MADE IN AUSTRALIA AND TRADE: Well, the first thing is we are a government that listens to different sections of the community and isn't afraid of talking about the difficult issues with sections of the community. I mean, the business community relationship has been absolutely critical for Anthony Albanese and the Labor Party: we’ve worked hard in opposition and in government to do big and important things for the Australian economy, and that partnership with business is critical. That means partnerships with individual businesses to do important pieces of work, but also listening to the business organizations at the peak level that have suggestions about how to improve productivity, how to move faster, in terms of the big energy questions, we're engaged with them, and we'll keep very, very engaged with them.
JAYES: How do IR laws improve productivity, exactly?
AYRES: They are very important at establishing the cooperation and the framework, in some respects in relation to productivity. It's not the whole answer, but it's definitely part of the answer. And of course, if you look around the world at high productivity, high wage, high performance economies, they are economies that bring cooperation from business, from different levels of government, the trade union movement together to deliver good outcomes for Australians, delivering higher wages, lifting employment, dealing with unemployment, these are dealing with workforce participation, encouraging more workers, particularly Australian women, into the labour market. All of these measures are critical for productivity performance. There's a ritual debate about industrial relations, Laura, that that is that's a pretty tired old debate. This government's been focused on lifting wages, particularly for low- and middle-income Australians.
JAYES: What do you mean tired old debate. Are you saying the business concerns expressed over IR are without merit? Do you dismiss their concerns?
AYRES: I don't dismiss anybody, Laura, and nor does the government. We listen to people carefully. I just make an observation about the state of the industrial relations debate in Australia. What is the international evidence? The international evidence is that where economies and the settings focus on cooperation, which is where this government's at, you get better outcomes. Productivity has been in the doldrums now for the last decade, lowest productivity growth in the previous government on record, they've got a newfound interest in productivity? Well, maybe that's a welcome thing, but we are focused on doing what we can in the here and now to lift productivity and participation, but also in- as you know- in the Future Made in Australia agenda, what is the future shape of the economy, and how do we build productivity into that to make Australia stronger and more economically resilient in the future?
JAYES: Well, tell me how when you're trying to build 1.2 million homes in the next five years, you have tens of thousands of workers in the building industry protesting yesterday. Now in Melbourne, they're stopping work potentially for another three days. What is Labor doing about that? Do you just not have any control of getting those people back to work, stopping this kind of industrial action?
AYRES: Well, I guess it's a question in two parts. Laura, if I can do it that way. Number one, if we're going to build 1.2 million homes, we need a Labor government to do it. No other government in this set of circumstances has made the kind of commitment in terms of funding and in terms of partnership with the development sector and private sector to build homes, illustrated just this morning in Cairns. South Cairns, 490 additional homes are being built because of the federal government and the state government, local government and the development community, private capital working together to build those homes. That is practical action right there. Very disappointed with the Senate this week, with the new coalition of the Greens political party and Peter Dutton's Liberals and Nationals coming together to stop ordinary Australians being able to afford their own homes. That is nurses and teachers and tradies and truck drivers. 40,000 of them will now miss out on the opportunity to buy their own home with the support of the Commonwealth. These are senators who will never have to worry about buying their own homes here in the Senate, bludging. Not doing their job and bludging. It is a big partisan political game in the Senate going on at the moment. The people who will suffer are the 40,000 Australians who need the government’s support to get on the property ladder. To be able to have the safety and security.
JAYES: How are you going to build the homes? And you've got tens of thousands of CFMEU union members, or at least sympathizers of the CFMEU protesting every few minutes.
AYRES: Well, we have taken the toughest action that has been taken by any government in relation to these questions. A lot of hot air and noise from the opposition, who had a decade and took the wrong kind of action. You know, the truth is, John Setka and those elements inside the CFMEU became stronger over the course of the last decade. Anthony Albanese, when he became the leader of the Labor Party, even in opposition, took strong and effective action. The administration of the CFMEU is designed to do two things. One is to clean it up. The second is to build a stronger and more effective, disciplined and clean CFMEU, that will be an effective advocate for building workers. Of course, there's a reaction. Of course there's a reaction to that. You've seen some of that play out. The government has imposed administrators. The government will support the administrator. He and his team have got a lot of work to do, and we'll support them in that work.
JAYES: But why can't these protests be stopped? Can't you go back to the Fair Work Commission, get them to intervene? Why is that not happening?
AYRES: Well, there is a right to protest in this country. Laura, there's a right to protest and its often inconvenient protest. And you know, sometimes you'd wish it's not happening, but there is a right to protest that the government's not going to resile from. The approach that we've taken because of these protests, the administrator is in place, and they will do their work that will have the effect that the government wants it to have. That is- lawlessness inside the CFMEU, in terms of the influence of some pretty bad people, will be dealt with, but also at the end of it, we will have a stronger, more effective proper governance inside an effective trade union in the building industry, and that is a good thing for workers in the building industry. It's a good thing for productivity and delivering projects on time and making sure everybody gets their fair share out of a building industry that Australians are going to count on to build the homes and office blocks of the future.
JAYES: Tim, thanks so much. You've got to get to get to the chamber. I've made you late. We'll see you soon.
AYRES: Thanks, Laura, thank you. Bye.
ENDS.
