The release yesterday of the first stage Australia@Work report from the Workplace Research Centre in Sydney is a pretty damning indictment of WorkChoices. The survey of more than 8000 Australians shows that those on AWAs do more work for less money: on average, $100 per week less. It's just confirming what everybody already knows, but it's only natural that the minister should try and put some political spin on it to try and minimize the damage. His rather dishonest attempts to find statistics - any statistics - to paint a rosier picture of WorkChoices was therefore not surprising.
His direct attack on the researchers themselves, though, was a surprise, even from a political " "brawler" such as Hockey. Comments such as "former trade union officials who are parading as academics" and "I'm not sure that this institution is known for academic rigour" amount to nothing more than ad hominem attacks and do nothing if not highlight the weakness of Hockey's position. Although the study is funded partly with money from Unions NSW, it has nearly $1 million in Australian Resarch Council money; it was signed-off by the University's ethics committee, it was peer reviewed by three anonymous referees and two internal referees, and was reviewed by the full board of the ARC. Those working on the report have eight degrees including two PhDs between them. Given these facts, can anyone seriously suggest this study is a flawed exercise in Union PR hackery? To do so would be an insult to academics everywhere.
The numbers back the report's authors up. Hockey has cherry picked his own data to try and show that WorkChoices is a bonanza for the Australian worker, but now even the ABS is pouring cold water on this (from The Age):
Mr Hockey said that ABS data showed that workers on Australian Workplace Agreements "earn nearly twice as much as people on awards". Prime Minister John Howard also said that the ABS "tell us that people are better off under AWAs".
But the ABS's assistant director of labour employee surveys, Valerie Pearson, said the survey Mr Hockey had referred to "was conducted only six weeks post WorkChoices".
In fact, the only data that shows employees on AWAs earn more also shows that they work longer hours and get paid less per hour than those on collective agreements. The common sense of the Australian working public has always told them this would happen. The idea of a lowly worker entering into tough negotiations with his boss and coming out triumphant is clearly ridiculous. The numbers only confirm that WorkChoices is all about the employer, from A-Z.
The minister has a tough task defending it, but he crossed the line yesterday. He has come off as shrill, desperate and thuggish, and may even have opened himself to defamation proceedings. Thanks to the Howard government's neglect of tertiary education, universities are encouraged to pursue parternships with business and industry to secure funding for their projects. Hockey's meritless trashing of the Centre and the researchers involved has damaged their commercial reputation. The researchers know this and don't appear to be taking it lying down. Nor should they. Hockey has dug himself into a hole, and the only way out is a public apology.
I won't hold my breath.
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