WorkChoices - Political Reactions and Consequences

Political Reactions and Consequences

When it was tabled in the Parliament, there was significant concerns from civil libertarians and the Opposition that the Bill was passed far too quickly for those voting on it to actually read the document closely, and that insufficient physical copies of the bill had been given to the Opposition to read before a vote was held.

Employer associations such as the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry had indicated they supported Work Choices at the time, figures that ran counter to the 50 per cent of employers cited in a 2007 AC Nielsen poll as opposing the measures. The Australian labour movement, represented by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, ran a very effective media campaign attacking the proposed changes, and alternate models were proposed by the centre-left Australian Labor Party (ALP), who won the subsequent election in a landslide. The Liberal (right-wing) Government at that time used federal funds to produce and air an advertising campaign promoting Work Choices, a decision that which was criticised by the federal opposition and challenged in the High Court. In addition, the state governments of Australia (all of which were Labor at the time) used the High Court to challenge the legality of the Commonwealth using the Corporations Act to sidestep the usual parliamentary oversight and implement Work Choices, but were ruled against.

Work Choices was not a 2004 election policy, however following the 2004 federal election, the Liberal-National coalition gained a majority in both houses of parliament, and amendments were introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 November 2005. A senate inquiry was held into the Bill from 14 November 2005 to 22 November 2005. The length of this was criticised by the Opposition as being too short. A survey by the Workplace Authority found that although most AWAs (Australian Workplace Agreement) removed some leave loadings, this was also accompanied by a wage rise in most cases. Work Choices was accepted by the Senate on 2 December 2005. The primary changes came into effect on 27 March 2006.

Work Choices was a prominent issue in the defeat of the centre-right Howard Liberal government at the 2007 federal election. The centre-left Rudd Labor government dismantled the legislation in 2008, declaring it "dead".