Miners to wage war against Labor after secret IR deal

The changes will require employers with collective agreements to pay labour hire at least the same as the direct workforce.

BHP had claimed this would lift its costs by $1.3 billion a year. Qantas, which has used in-house labour hire to circumvent legacy union conditions, said it would be made less competitive.

Ms Slattery said the laws made Australia “an even more expensive and less competitive place to do business, making it harder to attract the global capital needed to develop vital new resources projects”.

“We are now compelled to assess the impact this policy will have across our operations, offices and labour strategy in Australia,” she said.

“Alongside employers and businesses from sectors right across the Australian economy, BHP will remain steadfast in our opposition to this retrograde and damaging policy, and we will continue to urge the parliament to repeal Same Job, Same Pay.”

MCA chief executive Tania Constable said the Albanese government had “declared war” on the resources sector and the laws would render some mining projects unviable.

“Australia is already teetering on the edge of a recession, as economic growth grinds to a halt,” she said. “This reckless bill looms as the tipping point. It is an act of economic vandalism.”

She said the industry would not let the government get away with its deal and not stop its campaign “about a government that are economic vandals”.

‘Right to disconnect’ coming

“They are a government that does not care about workers. They are a government that does not care about business. We need to make sure that all Australians get that message.”

Mr Burke lashed the miners’ campaign, saying “if you had a choice between spending money on ads or paying your workers properly, the message is pay your workers”.

“At no point did that business campaign in fact defend the underpayment of workers through the labour hire loophole,” he said.

“At no point did they own up to the issue that this legislation would deal with.”

Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock supported the split, despite the laws still before a Senate inquiry.

The first tranche of the bill passed on Thursday includes four measures the senators argued urgently needed to pass, including better support for first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder from January 1.

The other measures include discrimination protections for workers subject to domestic violence, expanded asbestos regulation to include silica dust, and closing a loophole where large businesses that go insolvent are covered by small business exemptions that avoid redundancy pay.

Senator Pocock’s office is understood to have approached Labor last week about passing the four measures along with wage theft and industrial manslaughter.

Labor returned with an offer to do so with the labour hire laws and a deal was finalised in the past few days.

In return for the senators’ support, the government has agreed to introduce guidelines on independent medical assessments for workers.

The government will also boost funding for the Fair Work Ombudsman’s small business advisory service and initiate a review of the Comcare scheme to improve outcomes for injured workers.

Labor is working with the crossbench to deliver another agreed amendment to provide workers with a right to disconnect from unreasonable contact from their employer outside work hours.

Senator Pocock said on Thursday “it’s clear that things like minimum standards for gig workers are necessary, but we need to ensure we get the details of these big changes right”.

“Bringing forward changes that will better support first responders with PTSD will be life changing and I thank the government for working with the crossbench to split the bill to get this done this year,” he said.

Parliament cannot pass the rest of the legislation, now called Closing Loopholes 2, until February at the earliest.

Mr Burke said: “I’m even more optimistic about those remaining provisions because of the goodwill that we’re showing today.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt said: “The Greens were hoping to see more rights for casual and gig workers before Christmas, as well as a right to disconnect, but we’ll support this pared-back bill in the meantime and fight for more next year.”

Deal ‘vindicates’ position: AREEA

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the last-minute deal retained “deep flaws” in the labour hire laws.

“Employers will now inevitably need to decide between navigating costly litigation before the Fair Work Commission in order to argue why they shouldn’t be caught by the new laws or simply reassess their willingness to offer job opportunities,” he said.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black said the sudden deal “shows the government no longer wants to engage with the business community”.

However, the government has approved some labour hire amendments negotiated with the Australian Resources and Energy Employers Association, including a clearer exclusion for service contractors and limits on leave backpay to avoid distorting companies’ balance sheets.

AREEA chief executive Steve Knott, who took a practical approach after assessing early on that the crossbench would pass the laws, said the deal “vindicates AREEA’s decision to carve out key amendments for service contractors and retrospective labour hire leave liability laws”.

But Ms Constable said the crossbench deal “circumvents proper process and bypasses scrutiny”.

“Pre-election notions of transparency and a better way of doing politics are now dead and buried,” she said.

She said the labour hire law “threatens to bring down the shutters on project extensions and expansions”.

“And while nations clamour for access to critical minerals to build the clean energy technology required for net zero, this weakens Australia’s international competitiveness, pushing customers to other markets.

“For the resources states of Western Australia and Queensland, this bill represents a devastating blow that will reverberate throughout their economies and put a ceiling on growth.”

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said the “dishonourable deal” would affect more than the mining sector.

“A range of vital industries rely on labour hire including healthcare, construction, manufacturing and hospitality,” he said.

“These expenses will be ultimately passed on to consumers amid a cost-of-living crisis.”

Labour hire orders will not take effect until November, although unions and workers can make applications invoking the laws after royal assent.

The wage theft provisions will take effect in 2025 or as soon as Mr Burke introduces a yet-to-be-finalised small business code, which would include different considerations for prosecuting small business underpayments.

Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief executive Luke Achterstraat said he was concerned the government did not care about adding further complexity to small business.

“The Senate needs to be a House of Review, not a bad House of Cards spinoff show,” he said.

Miners, Qantas ‘can afford changes’

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus said companies “that will be crying loudest about these changes are some of Australia’s biggest and most profitable”.

“Mining companies such as Gina Rinehart’s or Qantas, whose CEOs are receiving huge bonuses, they don’t feel the hardships many Australians are feeling right now,” she said.

“They can well afford these changes, but they fought against them as they don’t want to see their mega profits take the smallest of hits.”

The Coalition accused Labor and the crossbench of a dirty deal done in the shadow of the Christmas break.

”Labor does not have the right priorities. This is a desperate ploy by an embattled government to distract Australians from the rolling train wreck that is the released detainees’ crisis,” opposition spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said.

“In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, the government’s new labour hire laws will substantially increase the burden and costs imposed on businesses using legitimate labour hire arrangements to meet demand surges or remedy staff shortages. These costs will be ultimately passed on to consumers.”

She said the Coalition would continue to fight against other aspects of the plan, including on casual employment.

“All this bill is doing is fulfilling the unions’ agenda. Labor is paying back their union paymasters,” Senator Cash said.