Peter Strong: Albanese government neglects small business with ‘UnionChoices’ legislation

Many will remember the failed ‘Workchoices ‘ legislation of the last government of John Howard. It seems that the Albanese government has its own ideological industrial relations legislation — it has no name yet so let’s call it for what it is: ‘UnionChoices’.

With multi-employer bargaining possible then unions potentially have the choice of which businesses and workers to include, subject to a series of complex and likely ineffective safeguards.

Unions are also being given the right to veto an employee vote on an agreement. Therefore, it remains the choice of unions as to the how and whom of workplace relations.

Where is small business in all of this?

In the 2007 election won by Kevin Rudd, some 55% of the self-employed voted for Labor or the Greens. The then-prime minister John Howard lost his seat in his own electorate where some 17% of voters were self-employed. This was a firm message from the self-employed about the power of their votes. In the election of 2019, it appears that around 27% of the self-employed voted left. This shows a lot of small business people are change voters and many are not rusted onto one party or the other.

The self-employed had been told throughout the Howard years that the Liberals were on their side, yet it eventually became obvious that while the Howard government gave all its rhetoric to small business, it gave actual support to big businesses such as Coles and Woolworths and also to the biggest landlords and property developers. In competition policy and in industrial relations (WorkChoices) it favoured big business and big business ideology. Thus, they lost.

Labor seems to have emulated the approach of the Howard government. When it comes to small business we are hearing lots of good rhetoric but the opposite in action. The role of the various small business ministers in the Howard government was to shut down criticism and convince small business advocates that all would be good when it wasn’t. The role of the Small Business Minister in the Albanese government, Julie Collins, is the same. Say nice things to small business but support the union-empowering legislation UnionChoices.

In the end, small business votes count. There are more than 2 million of them and there are more than 4.5 million employees that depend upon them. There are also sporting teams and charities and communities across the nation that need small business people. They need their sponsorship, their donations and their board membership. They need small and medium businesses to provide the difference that makes communities attractive to live in and for tourists to visit. Plus of course, they provide a little thing called jobs — millions of them.

The last election saw the emergence of the community independents (so-called “teals”), using expert advice from the Community Independents Project run by Cathy McGowan and her team. These independents mainly attracted the votes of disaffected Liberal voters who didn’t want to vote for Labor but were tired of the Liberal far right.

Can the same thing happen to Labor especially when we consider that Labor did not actually increase its own primary vote in the recent election? Let’s look at the electorates of some Labor MPs.

The electorate of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Grayndler, has around 14% of voters who are self-employed and the margin for Grayndler in the 2022 election was 17.1%.

The electorate of the Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke, Watson, has 17% self-employed and a margin of 15%. Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Rankin, has 12% with a margin of 9.1%.

Small Business Minister Julie Collins, Franklin, has 8% with a margin of 12%. We can see that group is not personally threatened by small business votes and therefore does not care much.

Yet, in marginal Labor-held seats, there is a different picture. There are 16 Labor seats with margins of 6% or less. In these seats, small business voters make up much more than 10% of voters. We see, for example, the seat of Parramatta with a margin of 1.1% and small business voters making up 19% of voters. The seat of Reid is held by Labor by a margin of 5.2% with small businesses making up 22% of voters, some 24,000 people.

Noting that the ALP lost the electorate of Fowler, where Kristina Kenneally ran for office, which it previously held with a margin of 14%, with 11% of voters being self-employed, anything is possible.

The Liberal Party has an opportunity, perhaps, to win back votes by modifying its policies and its extreme rhetoric. The Libs may also win back some of the seats lost to certain independents who have turned their back on the small business people in their electorates (people who voted for them) and supported the ALP’s UnionChoices legislation.

So as WorkChoices contributed to the demise of the Howard government, will UnionChoices and the likely serious impact it will have on small business people, and on jobs and inflation, create problems for Labor? Problems that should not be created?

Is Tony Burke the Minister for Workplace Relations where he considers the needs of all individuals involved and the needs of the economy? Or is he, as it appears, the minister for the ACTU?