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LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION THE HON KIM C BEAZLEY MP

11 June 2006

BEAZLEY TO END HOWARD’S DIVISIVE AWAs

I will abolish John Howard’s divisive Australian Workplace Agreements because they slash wages and rip away rights from Australian working mums and dads.

A Beazley Labor Government will abolish AWAs and there will be no statutory individual contracts.

AWAs are the poison tip of John Howard’s industrial relations arrow. John Howard is using them as nothing more than a means to cut wages, cut conditions, and undermine decency and fairness in our workplaces.

My Pact with Middle Australia is: when you put in, you get back.

Under a Beazley Labor Government, when working Australians put in, they will get back a decent wage, security and reward.

Since John Howard’s extreme IR laws came into effect:

• Every AWA has cut out at least one “protected” award condition - such as leave loadings, overtime and penalty rates, shiftwork and public holiday loadings;

• Two thirds of AWAs scrapped leave loadings and penalties;

• More than half of the AWAs abolished shift loadings; and

• One in six AWAs took away every single protected award entitlement, leaving those workers the barest minimum conditions.

Three months ago that sort of conduct would have been illegal. Now, that sort of behaviour is sanctioned and protected by the Howard Government.

AWAs cannot be fixed. They can’t be made good. They must be rejected.

I'll rip up these extreme laws and build a modern, flexible new system based on Australian values.

John Howard is taking us back to the master/servant world of 19th century industrial relations. I will move Australia forward with an IR system built on Australian values and fairness.

Sydney, Sunday, 11 June 2006

Contact: George Svigos: 0417 196 836