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The Federal Government’s planned industrial relations changes are a “disastrous rewriting” of labour laws that will trigger the collapse of small businesses, the peak mining body is warning. The Minerals Council is urging the Government to dump the “fundamentally flawed” legislation which it claims will harm the economy — in particular the mining sector — and add to cost-of-living pressures on families. “Small local businesses will be competing on wages and entitlements with some of the biggest companies in the world, rendering many unviable,” Ms Constable will tell the committee, according to a draft of her opening address supplied to The West Australian. “The only road out of this nightmare scenario will be litigation through the Fair Work Commission, at the company’s own expense and time. “Each company will need to satisfy the commission that they shouldn’t have been captured.”

Stronger than expected iron ore prices have helped lift the forecast for Australia’s resources and energy exports by $10 billion this financial year, despite a deteriorating global steel demand outlook.“Despite the worsening outlook for global steel demand, iron ore prices strengthened again in September. The resilience in prices appears to reflect improved market sentiment due to the potential for new government measures to support China’s economy.”

30 September 2023.

Australia must become more competitive or miss the next mining boom, with the Minerals Council of Australia warning current policy settings on taxation, project approvals and industrial relations are holding it back. The MCA has alerted the ­Albanese government that it risks squandering a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to capitalise on surging demand for the critical minerals needed to help the world meet its net-zero targets.

The Albanese Government risks undermining its new employment aspirations by pursuing disruptive and destructive industrial relations changes that will only imperil employment and enterprise. While the stated goals and objectives defined in the government’s Employment White Paper are valuable and represent a positive step forward, they sit at complete odds with the ramifications of its so-called Closing the Loopholes bill. For employment, it is one step forward, and two steps back.

“The effect of this proposal is that it will make Australia — and in our case, the resources sector — less competitive and more costly, and this comes at a time when global competition for investment in mining and minerals is dramatically increasing,” she said. “What that means is that a worker with decades of experience will, by law, have to be paid the same as a labour hire worker who’s brand new to the business. “For shareholders, this is something that you should be very concerned about, because where does this additional cost come from? It comes from dividends and it comes from a superannuation investment.”

“There’s no doubt WA will be the hardest hit by these ill-conceived reforms, which impact disproportionately on the mining sector,” Mr Rodwell said. Hancock Prospecting operations chief executive Gerhard Veldsman said the changes would be a retrograde step in conditions for their employees and the companies the sector supported. “These IR changes will hurt people, it will hurt regional communities and small businesses at a time when they need greater job security,” he said.

Describing the ‘‘how’’ of cyberattacks is usually classified, he says, because revealing such information can provide important feedback to adversaries. But ultimately, if the device you have has a central processing unit, some power and is somehow connected to the internet, then ‘‘there’s a way to break into it and hack into it and stay there. That’s just a given.’’

Big business has criticised the ­Albanese government for proposing retrospective anti-avoidance measures apply to Labor’s contentious labour hire changes, claiming the decision was already impacting hiring decisions by ­employers. He said the proposed changes introduced “unnecessary complexity and confusion into our workplace relations system at precisely the wrong time, with businesses big and small, facing extremely challenging conditions”. “As the government admits, it will also drive up prices for consumers during a cost-of-living crisis,” he said. “We again urge the government to go back to the drawing board, to identify the problems it is trying to solve before it introduces new laws that will impact nearly every business and every employee in Australia.”

14 September 2023.

WA Liberal senator Matt O’Sullivan told The West Australian the inquiry would now be able to travel around the country to hear from affected businesses, particularly in the State. “We know that the Bill does have a disproportionate impact on the resource companies in particular,” he said. “It’s particularly those . . . using services companies to support their operations and we know that many West Australians are working in that space — both small and medium-sized businesses.”

The Albanese Government may have pumped the brakes on a major overhaul of the nation’s industrial relations system but the battle with industry is far from over. WA’s biggest miners will continue protesting against the laws aimed at stopping companies from using labour-hire workers to undercut the rate of pay agreed for employees even with the reassurance they won’t pass Parliament until next year. The MCA is worried the scope of the proposed changes is excessive in its reach, capturing all contracting services businesses while threatening jobs and investment in the resources sector. Johnston might be hoping labour shortages will overshadow the IR debacle but that seems unlikely if mining giants like BHP and Roy Hill have more to say about it.