Red Rag

Earlier hints that the WA Liberals might reject a Commonwealth takeover of industrial relations have been confirmed by their new leader, Matt Birney, in a speech to the 500 Club on Friday:

I got myself a full briefing from the federal minister’s office, I spoke to Kevin Andrews on a couple of occasions on the telephone. I just can’t support it. I mean, I’m a Western Australian first, I’ve got to tell you, and I’m also concerned that this might end up being the thin edge of the wedge. I mean, I’m worried that State Governments might become irrelevant, and that would be a retrograde step.

The South Australian Liberals were quick to support Birney’s stand, saying that the smaller states had most to lose:

Well, I’m arguing that it’s not necessarily in the smaller States’ best interests. I can understand why New South Wales and Victoria might want that. … There are more politicians out of Sydney and Victoria, out of New South Wales and Victoria, therefore the system that will be delivered long term over a 10 or 15 year period will be a New South Wales and Victoria driven system.

By Friday afternoon, the Queensland Opposition had joined the chorus:

Our concern is that if this model goes too far, it could completely derail the state industrial relations system, which could have very, very negative impact on the capacity of State Governments to be able to run their affairs, particularly on IR matters, of which they have a very significant and direct responsibility.

It is unrealistic to expect any of the State conservative parties to vocally oppose the Government’s agenda, but they will try to sit on the fence. That means they will occasionally make noises about States’ rights, but won’t expend much energy actually fighting the proposals.

Still, these statements could significantly weaken the Government’s propaganda campaign, on two fronts. The first is the idea that IR needs to be rescued from the State Labor Governments; for example, Howard claimed in his Menzies Centre speech that we have “seen Labor States gum up workplaces with regulation in recent years”. But the State Liberals are warning people that Labor will, at some stage, win power at the national level (in three years, fingers crossed), and a unitary IR system would allow them to gum things up more effectively.

The second is the claim that “Victoria referred most of its IR powers to the commonwealth in the early ’90s and the sky didn’t fall in.” The State Liberals’ comments, especially those of South Australia’s Iain Evans, cast the debate not as a battle between the States and the Commonwealth, but as a battle between Victoria and New South Wales on one side, and everybody else on the other. That’s far more likely to catch people’s attention — everyone’s numb to the ritual of State/Federal buck-passing, but people in the smaller States have a strong sense that Canberra generally ignores their interests.

It will be interesting to see how the Liberals handle this split in the next couple of months. They will try very hard to keep their heads down, but Labor will try just as hard to trap them into repeating their concerns.