Abbott flags changes to unfair dismissal laws

New Liberal leader Tony Abbott has stepped up his attack on the Rudd Government’s new industrial relations regime, declaring that the Coalition would change unfair dismissal rules for business if it wins the next election.

Abbott, who conceded earlier this week that the Howard Government went too far with its Work Choices reforms, says Australia needs to return to a more “free and flexible economy”.

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Abbott said the Coalition would push for the re-introduction of individual contracts, which were the centrepiece of the Work Choices regime.

He also said that the Coalition would seek to increase the number of companies that are exempted from unfair dismissal laws, by lifting the level at which businesses are exempt from the current level of fewer than 15 employees to fewer than 20 employees.

For the second time this week, Abbott has accused Workplace Relations Minster Julia Gillard of undoing the reforms introduced by the Howard Government in the late 1990s and the Keating Government in the early 1990s, when enterprise bargaining was introduced.

“Kevin Rudd is taking us back to the 1970s, that’s what he’s doing. And I’ll tell you, that won’t happen under us,” Abbott declared after his election to the Liberal leadership.

Rudd and the union movement have been quick to seize on Abbott’s remarks as proof that the Coalition will seek to reheat Work Choices.

”The Australian people rejected Work Choices and Work Choices-style Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts) at the 2007 election,” Rudd says.

”If you’re bringing back Work Choices, it means stripping away such basic protections as penalty rates, overtime and holiday pay.”