No worker will be worse off under our industrial relations policy. Now where have I heard that before?

 

Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott (former Minister for Employment Services and  Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business  in the Howard Government) on the subject of the Coalition’s industrial relations policy on 9 May 2013:

Australian Coalition Prime Minister John Howard on the subject of the Coalition’s industrial relations policy in 1996:

In 2007 over twelve months after the introduction of the Coalition Government’s Work Choices industrial relations legislation and regulations:

 

* on average across the country, workers on AWAs earned 3 per cent less than workers on collective agreements. Outside Western Australia, the shortfall was 10 per cent.

 

* Some of Australia's 1.7 million retail and hospitality workers have lost up to a third of their incomes since the introduction of Work Choices laws, a new study has found.

 

The Coalition’s current May 2013 industrial relations policy document here.