Monday, 18 August 2025

Holly Stearnes: Okay returning to our top story the Productivity Commission Chair says red-tape hairballs are choking economic growth, ahead of the roundtable starting tomorrow of course. The Treasurer speaking this morning saying that he's realistic but optimistic in making some progress. Joining me live is Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Tim Wilson. Good morning to you, great to see you. What did you make of Jim Chalmers brief comments this morning?

Tim Wilson: Well, the Treasurer has been out there at different points, talking up his roundtable. He started by saying it was a productivity roundtable, the Prime Minister slapped that down, then it turned into a tax hike roundtable, he then slapped that down. Then, of course, we're back to a productivity roundtable and that's basically being slapped down again in terms of proposals. What the Treasurer needs to do is put concrete proposals on the table to discuss that the Prime Minister will actually let him talk about. When we have that, then we might have some guidance about where this conversation is actually going to go.

Holly Stearnes: I mean he said this morning that productivity is of course the key focus of this roundtable. We've heard comments to the effect of red tape hairballs are choking the economy. Do you agree with those comments from Danielle Wood?

Tim Wilson: It'd be impossible not to agree with those comments. I mean, this Government has introduced 5,000 new regulations during the last term. Now they're saying that they want to remove them, or at least the Productivity Commission is saying, we need to remove them and I couldn't agree more that we need reduce red tape. We need to also put all the issues on the agenda. Currently, the government's excluded industrial relations from the discussion around productivity, when it's literally the biggest problem or challenge faced in improving productivity and labour productivity, to be able to improve standards of living. Which would be the focus I would have thought improving the economic wellbeing of Australians. So again the difference between the rhetoric and the talk of the Treasurer... and what is actually going to be delivered, is of course the big question out of the next couple of days.

Holly Stearnes: Remembering the Treasurer also saying too that changes take a long time to take effect. Also pointing the finger at previous Coalition Governments for where the state of the economy is at. What's your response to that?

Tim Wilson: Well it's cute and it's cheeky. I mean the Treasurer has now had comfortably three years to stamp his influence on the economy. They had a jobs and skills summit shortly after the last election. Their only outcome from that was to make it harder for Australian businesses to employ and pay workers more. That's the reality. That's his choice. But now we're now living with the downstream consequences of it. It's a simple proposition. If you have low productivity, if you have centralised wage fixing exactly as the government is doing, what are you going to see? You're going to a rise in unemployment, higher inflation and higher interest rates. And that's currently the trajectory under this Government. So I want to see a better outcome for Australians, improved wages and standards of living being lifted, but that's not the policies that this Government has sought to implement.

Holly Stearnes: Carbon principle and cash flow levy, just some suggestions being put forward. There are plenty of ideas being thrown around at the moment. What do you make of those suggestions?

Tim Wilson: Well there are lots of ideas being thrown around. You've got every single vested interest and rent seeker out there putting their agenda on the table. We saw last week the ACTU putting out a proposal that they don't even implement themselves on their own workplaces they want to impose on the rest of the workplaces of the nation. I think when it comes down to it, it's what the Government then chooses to do and then they seek to implement. That matters. And that's why having a rational conversation around how we empower small businesses to be able to make it easier for them to employ Australians, pay them in an easier and more straightforward way. And let's be clear, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations can't even figure out how existing award structures should enable them to pay people easily and simply. So how on earth are small businesses going to be able to do it? The only focus this government seems to have is structure everything so that their trade union mates can take clips of the ticket along the way rather than making sure we improve the standards living of Australians.

Holly Stearnes: Well, while we're talking about unions, I want to get your thoughts. I mean, the Services Union is now fighting to protect employee work from home rights. I know that you're supportive of work from home, but it's wanting six months notice to remove work from home benefits. What do you make of that?

Tim Wilson: Well we support work from home and we support it as part of an existing framework of laws. And so the question is, how would it work with the existing framework laws? As far as I'm aware, there's existing arrangements between employers and employees to make sure that there's a pathway to make sure that Australians can have work from home arrangements which work for them and work for employers because the biggest risk always is that people might end up finding themselves at home but that's because they don't have any work. So, we support arrangements that are cooperative, that work as partnerships so that Australians have economic opportunity and jobs on terms that are sustainable going into the future. So, of course, there'll be lots of these proposals put out there. They'll all have, of course, the Government will seek to advance them in their own way, and when they do that, we'll look at how we're going to respond.

Holly Stearnes: Do you support six months though?

Tim Wilson: Well, as I said, this is just a proposition that's being put forward, like so many others as part of this roundtable. We're just going to wait and see what the Government comes out from this before we respond to each of the different proposals. We support the existing framework of laws because they're working in empowering Australians to be able to have a job, to be able to work from home because we support working from home as part workplace flexibility arrangements and to empower Australians to be able to work around work-life balance. Improve standards of living because standards of living aren't just about wages, but it's about having flexibility to make sure you can do things like pick up your kids too.

Holly Stearnes: Okay, Tim Wilson, thanks for joining us this morning.

ENDS