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Mining giants lawyer up · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the Front on your smart speaker
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  Speaker 2: Just say play the news from the Australian. From the Australian,
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  Speaker 2: here's what's on the Front. I'm Kristin Amiot. It's Monday,
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  Speaker 2: September twenty three. Approval for the government has fallen to
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  Speaker 2: its equal lowest point since the twenty twenty two federal election.
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  Speaker 2: That's according to new data from Newspoll, which shows Labour's
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  Speaker 2: stalled housing plan is the top concern for voters. You
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  Speaker 2: can read our experts analysis of the latest numbers right
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  Speaker 2: now at the Australian dot com dot a u Taiwan
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  Speaker 2: wants un membership and it needs Penny Wong's help to
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  Speaker 2: get it. The self governed territory has asked the Foreign
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  Speaker 2: Minister to throw her support behind un BID after Australia
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  Speaker 2: backed Palestine's admission to the International organization. Mining giants have
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  Speaker 2: launched a federal court bid to throw out a ruling
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  Speaker 2: about workers' entitlements. It's the first big test for the
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  Speaker 2: Albanzi government's new rules about how employees can negotiate with
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  Speaker 2: their bosses. That's today's story. Imagine for a second You're
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  Speaker 2: a worker on a mining site somewhere in New South
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  Speaker 2: Wales and the supervisor rostered on to monitor safety protocols
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  Speaker 2: during your shift is out of action for one reason
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  Speaker 2: or another. You could work, but it's risky. What if
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  Speaker 2: something goes wrong, So you and your colleagues go the
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  Speaker 2: other route, walking off the job until you can come
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  Speaker 2: to an agreement with your employer about how to proceed.
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  Speaker 2: The bosses in head office note those conversations could drag on,
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  Speaker 2: so they make the call shut the site down until
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  Speaker 2: all the necessary people are back on deck. Mining bosses
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  Speaker 2: say these costly shutdowns could be their new reality thanks
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  Speaker 2: to sweeping industrial relations reforms, which were legislated in late
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. For the centerpiece of the government's first
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  Speaker 2: wave of UR reforms, a multi employer bargaining is available
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  Speaker 2: to employees from today. The reforms or one of a
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  Speaker 2: handful of big wins for labor in the early days
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  Speaker 2: of this government. Here's former Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.
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  Speaker 3: The laws so far are working exactly how we'd anticipated
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  Speaker 3: and not quite matching up with the fear campaign.
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  Speaker 2: Basically, the legislation allows unions to negotiate workplace agreements across
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  Speaker 2: multiple businesses in the same industry. Then once a deal
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  Speaker 2: is struck, they can bring in more businesses that stand
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  Speaker 2: to benefit from that agreement. The Albanezi government assured big
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  Speaker 2: mining companies they had nothing to worry about because the
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  Speaker 2: reforms were targeted at low paid industries and smaller operations.
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  Speaker 2: But the minor say unions have leapt it the chance
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  Speaker 2: to enforce multi employer bargaining on mining sites, and a
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  Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago the Fair Work Commission gave it
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  Speaker 2: a big nudge. It ordered the New South Wales coal miners,
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  Speaker 2: white Haven Coal, Peabody Energy and Ewle And Coal Mines
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  Speaker 2: to enter a joint bargaining process, saying they have a
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  Speaker 2: clear common interest. Now they're fighting back.
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  Speaker 1: This has caused a lot of consternation and anxiety. We've
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  Speaker 1: now seen white Haven Coal, Peabody and glen Core joining
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  Speaker 1: forces in what really is now a landmark test case
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  Speaker 1: of the Urbanezy government's multi employer bargaining laws.
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  Speaker 2: Jeff Chambers is The Australian's chief political correspondent.
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  Speaker 1: Now, glen Core and Peabody are big multinational companies in
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  Speaker 1: Whitehaven is one of Australia's biggest coal producers, all three
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  Speaker 1: very important exporters contribute a lot to the New South
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  Speaker 1: Wales and Australian economy and they will go to the
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  Speaker 1: Federal Court and they will seek an appeal to overturn
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  Speaker 1: the Fairwork Commission ruling. And under that ruling, the Fair
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  Speaker 1: Work Commission has pretty much agreed with the unions that
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  Speaker 1: brought the action that there is a common interest, and
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  Speaker 1: that common interest is that these companies mine the same
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  Speaker 1: commodity in the same state.
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  Speaker 2: Labour's been under increasing pressure to wind back the multi
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  Speaker 2: employer bargaining legislation more or less since it passed. Opposition
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  Speaker 2: Leader Peter Dutton has promised to repeal the laws if
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  Speaker 2: his party wins government at the next federal election.
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  Speaker 3: So we will take a policy that's in our country's
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  Speaker 3: best interests, that provides support to workers, but that doesn't
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  Speaker 3: make it impossible, particularly for small businesses to employ staff,
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  Speaker 3: because particularly when the economy to turns down, we want
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  Speaker 3: employers to err on the side of keeping those workers on.
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  Speaker 2: Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi has offered a tacit refusal to
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  Speaker 2: walk back the laws. Instead, he's taking the nothing to
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  Speaker 2: see here approach. His speech to the Business Council of
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  Speaker 2: Australia on Tuesday night avoided any mention of it entirely,
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  Speaker 2: and Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt is digging in. He
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  Speaker 2: says multi employer agreements are good for the economy because
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  Speaker 2: they increase flexibility and boost productivity. Plus, the Queensland Senator
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  Speaker 2: says only one agreement has been struck in the heating,
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  Speaker 2: ventilation and air conditioning industry, but mining bosses fear other
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  Speaker 2: industries employing thousands of Australian workers like banks, supermarkets and
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  Speaker 2: iron ore companies could be in the Fair Work Commission
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  Speaker 2: sites as well.
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  Speaker 1: Ultimately, what the mining companies say, and this is the
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  Speaker 1: same across all bigger businesses, is that there are differences
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  Speaker 1: between the types of companies, the types of areas where
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  Speaker 1: people work, and the types of operations. So you're basically
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  Speaker 1: under multi employer bargaining. Suggests that one size fits all,
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  Speaker 1: and as plenty of workers in the mining industry know
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  Speaker 1: whether it's iron ore or coal or LNG, they're in
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  Speaker 1: different locations, there are different considerations. There is also concerns
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  Speaker 1: that other sectors could be hit because if you run
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  Speaker 1: the same common interest test. You can say the same
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  Speaker 1: for banks, supermarkets, and very concerningly for the mining industry,
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  Speaker 1: the iron ore companies up in the Pilboro and Western
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  Speaker 1: Australia now more widely, they're concerned about remaining globally competitive
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  Speaker 1: and sustainable. And it's a concern about the unions growing
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  Speaker 1: their power and walking into one work site operated by
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  Speaker 1: one company and then onto a different work site by
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  Speaker 1: another company and then lumping them all in as one.
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  Speaker 2: So what could it mean for Labour's Grand industrial vision
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  Speaker 2: if white Haven, Peabody and Yulen get up in court.
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  Speaker 1: I think it's very much a text for the Fair
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  Speaker 1: Work Commission and for the unions. If they can hold
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  Speaker 1: this up in front of the Federal Court, then we
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  Speaker 1: will potentially see this then being applied across the country
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  Speaker 1: for the private sector. For business. They want to use
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  Speaker 1: this as a test case to show why this is
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  Speaker 1: not the right application under the law. So there's a
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  Speaker 1: real standoff, and we hear a lot about big business
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  Speaker 1: and mining being at war with the Albanese government. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of that has to do with multi employer bargaining.
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  Speaker 1: So I think there's been a few bridges burnt and
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  Speaker 1: the timing of this. Putting aside the Federal Court appeal,
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  Speaker 1: there will be more widely a lot of campaigning and
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  Speaker 1: activity because the unions have great influence over this government
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  Speaker 1: and they would be concerned not only did they can't
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  Speaker 1: have a open discussion about where things might not be
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  Speaker 1: working or some of their concerns, but also more tranches
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  Speaker 1: of legislation than coming through. And they're also really concerned
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  Speaker 1: about a hung parliament scenario where there's a Labor Greens
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  Speaker 1: independent government, and they're just really concerned at a time
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  Speaker 1: of such low productivity, low economic growth, high interest rates,
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  Speaker 1: that we are making ourselves more globally uncompetitive with much
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  Speaker 1: more complex IR laws.
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  Speaker 2: Coming up. Why the coalition's nuclear energy plan is still
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  Speaker 2: up in the air. Subscribers to The Australian get first
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  Speaker 2: access to exclusive stories like this one. Join us at
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  Speaker 2: the Australian dot com dot au and we'll be back
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  Speaker 2: after this break.
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  Speaker 3: So that the government has a renewables only policy which
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  Speaker 3: is just not fit for purpose.
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  Speaker 2: That's Opposition leader Peter Dutton. In June he announced his
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  Speaker 2: party will go all in on nuclear energy if it
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  Speaker 2: wins the next election.
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  Speaker 3: No other country in the world can keep the lights
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  Speaker 3: on twenty four to seven with the renewables only policy.
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  Speaker 3: We need to make sure that hospitals can stay on
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  Speaker 3: twenty four to seven. We need to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: cold rooms can stay on twenty four seven. We need
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  Speaker 3: to make sure that our economy can function twenty four
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  Speaker 3: to seven, and we can only do that with a
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  Speaker 3: strong base low power.
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  Speaker 2: The coalition has proposed building a mix of smaller modular
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  Speaker 2: nuclear reactors and full sized facilities on sites of existing
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  Speaker 2: power stations around the country, but for months now it's
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  Speaker 2: declined to explain how much its big pivot to nuclear
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  Speaker 2: energy could cost, saying only that those details would be
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  Speaker 2: released in due course. And in a speech to the
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  Speaker 2: Committee for Economic Development of Australia today, Dutton will toe
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  Speaker 2: the party line. He says energy transformation like the one
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  Speaker 2: he's proposing could create thousands of jobs, but he still
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  Speaker 2: won't get into the numbers. On Sunday morning, Treasurer at
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  Speaker 2: Jim Chalmers said that's not good enough.
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  Speaker 4: I think that this is economic insanity. He is a
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  Speaker 4: big risk to energy and to power prices in this country.
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  Speaker 4: The fact that he's not prepared to release those details
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  Speaker 4: I think should ring alarm bells for every Australia. It's
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  Speaker 4: time for him to come clean.
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  Speaker 2: Here's Jeff Chambers.
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  Speaker 3: Look.
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  Speaker 1: I think from Peter Dudden's perspective, there is such great
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  Speaker 1: weight of pressure on Anthony Albernesi and the Labor government
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  Speaker 1: around the cost of living and housing, and I don't
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  Speaker 1: think Peter Dudden wants to provide any ammunition too early
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  Speaker 1: for a government that's really quite desperate on several fronts
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  Speaker 1: at the moment. And we've all got to recall that
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Alberzi waited until much closer to the twenty two
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  Speaker 1: election before he put out his Powering Australia Plan, and famously,
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  Speaker 1: in that plan they promised that they'd be reducing electricity
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  Speaker 1: bills by two hundred and seventy five dollars. So I
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  Speaker 1: think Peter Duden is just banking on the fact that
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  Speaker 1: a lot of anger is directed at the government and
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  Speaker 1: there's this rising speculation that we're all looking at a
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  Speaker 1: slightly earlier March election, which means we come out of
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  Speaker 1: December into the summer January and we see an election
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  Speaker 1: called pretty swiftly after that.
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  Speaker 2: Jeff Chambers is The Australian's chief political correspondent, You can
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  Speaker 2: read his exclusive story about the court action launched by
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  Speaker 2: some of the nation's mining bosses right now at the
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  Speaker 2: Australian dot com dot au