Sorry ScoMo, but this is tepid tinkering with IR laws, not real reform

When the Prime Minister announced his five-point industrial relations package in May a senior adviser told me “This is not 1996” referencing the reform package introduced by the then minister, Peter Reith. 

And in parliament this week the Prime Minister confirmed this, saying the changes “are modest and practical”. 

He is correct. This is a trepid package that tinkers more than reforms. 

It is not a patch on the workplace changes introduced by the Howard government in 1996 and the later WorkChoices reforms introduced in 2005. 

Yet from the bellicose response from the unions and the ALP you would think grey storm clouds are gathering and that the whole IR system assault. 

Unfortunately, that is not the case — as…