Coalition’s war on casual workers a harbinger for assault on permanent workers

Scott Morrison is giving workers and unions a class war — just in time for Christmas.

Company profits are up nearly 19 per cent since 2019, thanks to pandemic stimulus spending. But it’s never enough – for businesses or the Coalition. So, the Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, has introduced the Industrial Relations (IR) Omnibus bill.

A withering pro-business offensive aimed at slashing wages, the plan will inflict a double wound on workers, by degrading the Awards system (which sets minimum wages and conditions across industries) and by weakening what little remains of unions’ collective bargaining power.

Never let a crisis go to waste

Thanks to four decades of neoliberalism, unions have been weakened. As a…