I think its a smart decision by the Federal Opposition to drop its Workchoices policy. I’d say the Liberals wish they’d never thought of it, let alone implemented it in such a shambolic way. The smartest thing for them to have done as an Opposition is let the new government get rid of it, then never speak of it again …. and try to pretend it never existed.
To fight the government in abolishing Workchoices would have served only to prolong the agony, and given the government an excuse (as if they need one) to keep beating the opposition over the head with the clearly electorally damaging policy.
Having said that, it will be interesting to see how far the government winds the workplace relations system back. I’d hate to see the old unfair dismissal rules back in their old form …. when obviously dickhead employees could either get reinstated or get compensation because of some deficiency in paperwork or something. In unfair dismissal cases, surely the rules have to be along the lines of what would a reasonable employer do in this situation with this employee.
Unfair dismissal is a hard one. While there are plenty of people who have abused it, there are many cases where people have been sacked for bad reasons.
At the end of the day, to use a bad cliché, if a chick won’t come across to her male boss in a cafe where she earns $16 an hour, should she be sacked for non performance of duties and have no easy comeback?
I am fairly sure the status quo will prevail though. Not much will change.