I'm a consensus builder, Shorten tells business as he tries to limit union fallout
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Version 0 of 1. Bill Shorten has sought to move on from his time in the royal commission witness stand, telling a business audience that his union record was marked by a desire to reach consensus and avoid unnecessary industrial fights. In a speech to an event hosted by the Council of Small Business of Australia on Thursday, the Labor leader portrayed his time at the helm of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) in pragmatic and cooperative terms. Related: Bill Shorten at the royal commission: no killer blow, but now for the aftermath Shorten also used the speech to float a policy option, saying the opposition was looking at ways to make it easier for small businesses to incorporate. Shorten – who spent two days in the witness stand at the Coalition-established royal commission into trade union governance and corruption last week – also praised “good employers” for their role improving living standards. He characterised his leadership style as “initiating consensus, not instigating conflict”. Shorten said his party had supported the Coalition’s small business tax cuts “because we don’t automatically say ‘no’ to an idea just because it doesn’t come under a Labor letterhead”. “This has always been my philosophy as a union representative and a parliamentarian: don’t search for the point of contention, focus on building a basis for consensus; begin by looking for the value in the other person’s proposition and work from there,” he told the business audience. “This was the approach I took at the AWU: striking the best agreements for workers – and business.” He added: “My time at the AWU taught me about one of the most important agents for improving the living standards of working people: the good employer.” In his broader remarks, Shorten said policy makers should look for ways to simplify the process for small businesses to gain the benefits of incorporation. “One option, adopted with success in the United States, is a change in the corporate structure, to create a specific class of corporations for small business. This differentiated approach recognises that compliance measures should be tailored to match the size of businesses,” he said, flagging further talks on the idea. Shorten’s personal popularity has taken a hit after his time at the royal commission in Sydney last week, when he faced questions about the enterprise agreements he struck with companies and the payments those companies made to the AWU. On his first day in the witness stand, it emerged that Shorten’s 2007 campaign to enter parliament received about $75,000 in previously undisclosed support, including a company-funded campaign director. Shorten wrote to the Labor party’s Victorian division last week asking it to update its returns to the Australian Electoral Commission. On his second day in the stand, Shorten told the commission he would “never be a party to issuing bogus invoices” and rejected asserts payments to the AWU created conflicts of interest during wage negotiations. But the former high court judge overseeing the commission, Dyson Heydon, intervened at one point to chide Shorten for “non-responsive” answers and questioned his “credibility as a witness”. An Essential poll, published on Tuesday, showed 27% approved of Shorten’s performance as opposition leader and 52% did not approve, producing a net rating of negative 25, his lowest since becoming leader. The prime minister, Tony Abbott, registered a net approval rating of minus 16 in the same survey. Labor figures have repeatedly denounced the royal commission as a politically motivated “witch hunt” but Abbott said the inquiry had exposed “a long-term culture of union officials ripping off workers inside the union movement”. The government has signalled that when parliament resumes in August it will seek Senate support for two union-related bills, including tougher rules for registered organisations and the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. These bills, if blocked for a second time, would present the government with another trigger for a potential double-dissolution election. Shorten was secretary of the AWU’s Victorian branch from 1998 to 2006, and also served as the union’s national secretary from 2001 until his entry into federal parliament in 2007. |