Crikey

After spending the morning bussing around Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Malcolm Turnbull took to the Westin Hotel podium yesterday and repeated his “WorkChoices is dead” mantra — just in case we’d forgotten. The vast majority of the Government’s 575-page Fair Work bill is almost certain to be passed, and the Coalition can only hope to eke out a few amendments around right-of-entry. But yesterday’s Turnbull speech was notable not for the lack of detail but for the willingness of Turnbull to adopt, way too late in the game, the indecent IR obsession of The Australian newspaper.

With business cosying up to Kevin, and Malcolm striving for popular relevance, a cadre of crack News Ltd hacks have been dispatched to wage an IR guerilla war by proxy. Union bashing has been the raison d’être of buttoned-up reporters like Brad Norington for years — when Norington refers to the dreaded return of the ‘IR club’ he could easily be talking about himself. But confronted with a watertight consensus after extensive consultation, the Oz has continued to push an adversarial line that attempts to revive the pitched battles of the 1890s.

Take the first efforts that surfaced on 26 November after Julia Gillard outlined the bill. Confronted with a employee/employer love-in, a mystified Norington and brother-in-arms Michael Stutchbury thrashed around desperately for traction. After a few pars designed to put the wind up small business, Norington settled on the apparent threat posed by right-of-entry:

Apart from a few disgruntled souls in the mining industry and hotels, business groups were remarkably accepting of Labor’s package.

The two main organisations, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Industry Group said they could work with Labor’s new order.

In the two weeks since that article was published, initially supportive ACCI chief Peter Anderson was effectively slapped into line. On 28 November, Anderson was still commending Gillard for recognising “that the Government has extensively consulted”. But Norington was having none of it. By 1 December, the ACCI were back in the fold, throwing their weight behind this hysterical piece on Fair Work’s pattern bargaining provisions.

On 5 December, Rupert’s warriors at the Wall Street Journal weighed in:

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Fair Work is how little criticism it is receiving. This is partly due to the poor salesmanship of Mr Howard, who didn’t properly explain his reforms to the Australian public — a mistake that contributed to Mr Rudd’s election victory.

Yet the now-opposition Liberals are barely raising any objections at all. Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull said his coalition wouldn’t oppose the bill but reserved the right to “propose amendments.” The business community has been even weaker-kneed. The Australian Mines and Metals Association is one of the few voicing loud, public opposition.

On Saturday, Norington re-entered the fray, clearly miffed by the lack of love from the Australian Industry Group’s Heather Ridout. In an excruciating piece, Norington gets close to accusing the business lobby of false consciousness — a charge usually leveled at the Oz’s enemies on the Left. What looks like an off-hand comment about the “weird” direction the IR debate is taken as evidence of a looming stoush. Of course, Ridout’s overall backing of the bill remains strong, subject to qualifications.

Of course, AMMA failed to arc-up during the closed door consultation process and waited until after Gillard’s announcement to post an aggressive press release on its website.

It’s safe to say the bruising industrial conflicts of earlier eras have petered out, but not for the old guard at News, who’ve been relishing the chance to re-open old wounds. Even if the labour movement was able to somehow use Fair Work to revitalize, it’s doubtful whether unions, with membership in freefall, could achieve anything like the wage gains achieved during the 1960s. The business lobby knows this — that’s why it’s willing to placate the ALP’s union mates by allowing for the in-principle return of collective bargaining. Rupert’s warriors should be sleeping soundly — in a globalised economy the impact on profits of a piece of softly-softly legislation from Down Under will be basically nil.