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Hon Kevin Andrews MP

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service 17 October, 2006

Media Release

Real Choice Under Workchoices

New data from the Office of the Employment Advocate show that employees and employers are exercising their

freedom of choice to enter into the full range of agreements available under WorkChoices.

These figures completely undermine Kim Beazley’s claim that, “What all this amounts to is collapsing the right of

ordinary Australians to collectively bargain.” (House Hansard, 26 May 2005)

Since WorkChoices commenced on 27 March more than 2000 employee and union collective agreements have been

entered into.

And while 129,678 employees have entered into Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), 308,831 employees have

signed up to collective agreements. (see tables below)

Under WorkChoices employees and employers have the choice to select the workplace agreement that best suit their

workplace needs.

This is in contrast with Mr Beazley, who on the weekend re-confirmed one of the planks of his IR platform - “no

ticket, no start”, and who has also pledged to abolish AWAs.

ALP Vice-President Mike Rann also supported the ban on non-union journalists at the South Australian State Labor

Conference, saying, “if you join a union, you’d be allowed in.” (Seven News 15/10/06) This is a closed shop.

Under Labor the only choice for an employee will be to join a union to get a job - and that is no choice at all.

Agreement types

Agreement Type Total

Australian Workplace Agreement 129,678

Employee collective agreement 1,162

Union collective agreement 971

Employer greenfields agreement 218

Union greenfields agreement 120

Multiple Business agreement 0

Total 132,149

Number and proportion of employees covered by agreement type

Agreement Type Total Proportion

Australian workplace agreement 129,678 30%

Employee collective agreement 54,226 12%

Union collective agreement 254,605 58%

Employer greenfields agreement 20 0%

Multiple business agreement 0 0%

Total 438,529 100%

The facts speak for themselves. They prove that Kim Beazley can not be trusted to deal with the facts when

conducting a debate about workplace relations.

The facts are simple. This Government supports choice and freedom of association, while Mr Beazley supports a

closed shop and compulsory unionism.

For further information contact: Brad Burke 0421 586 478