Mr CHARLES —My question is addressed to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business. Is the minister aware of reports in last Friday's daily commercial news that productivity at Melbourne's East Swanson dock has declined since the Maritime Union of Australia signed an enterprise bargain that was meant to improve productivity? Can the minister detail what the government's first steps will be to improve productivity on the waterfront?

Mr REITH —I thank the member for La Trobe for his question. I did see that report of the remarks of Commissioner Wilkes in the Industrial Relations Commission in the daily commercial news. It is a relevant matter, because I am meeting this week with the representatives of the Maritime Union of Australia plus Greg Combet of the ACTU.

It was interesting that Commissioner Wilkes was saying that the MUA should be working to increasing its productivity in that operation to 22 crane lifts per hour. He was asking that they lift the productivity to what it was before they signed an agreement earlier this year. This is a statement not from the government but from the independent arbitrator or umpire—in this case, the Industrial Relations Commission. The point that they are making is that an agreement was entered into at the start of this year and, instead of the situation improving, it has actually got worse.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated example. We saw in the productivity employment program in Port Botany not so long ago that this agreement with the MUA was touted as improving the situation, and yet within weeks of the commencement of that operation the productivity levels were actually falling and increasing costs—

Mr Tanner —Tell us about the latest figures—the productivity improvement and the five per cent increase.

Mr REITH —The member for Melbourne interjects and says, `What about the latest figures?' The latest figures are lousy. The figures before that were bad, and the reality is that we have still got a long way to go. You know that. I know that. What we say to the MUA is that we want to have a sensible discussion about what the problems are and what can be done to fix them.

Yesterday I put out a very simply agenda for the meeting, just covering some of these obvious issues. We do need to improve Australia's productivity on the waterfront. The crane rates are a long way behind what they should be comparable to similar situations overseas—not comparable to Singapore, which has a bigger throughput and the capital and the volume to have much better crane rates. But against those whom we would fairly compare ourselves, Australia's crane rates today are far too low and we could do far better. We have the equipment and, quite frankly, we have the people. We have the people who have the capacity, and there is no reason why this cannot be done.

I also would like to talk to them about health and safety issues, because the record on health issues,and particularly safety issues, on the waterfront is not nearly as good as it could be. I am sure that that is an area where we can work constructively if we can at least share a common objective to see improvements in health and safety.

The level of industrial action on the Australian waterfront is something like 10 times the national average. It is far too high by any reasonable standard. We basically have a shocking record when it comes to industrial action. Australia's reputation as a reliable supplier is tarnished as a result of that industrial action. The fourth area which I think we ought to be discussing is having in place a system where we can have more flexible arrangements about managing the work force.

We are approaching this on a constructive basis. It is important that we sit down and talk with the respective parties. I would have to say I am not holding my breath. There have been a lot of discussions with the MUA in the past, and those discussions have not brought forward the dynamic change on the waterfront that Australia desperately needs. But, from the government's point of view, we go into our discussions on Wednesday night with a straightforward and committed view that we need to improve the waterfront. We are prepared to sit down with people and constructively talk about achieving that objective.