Please monitor the ALP website at for further information.

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1 Please monitor the ALP website at for further information. Q1. What is your party's' future plan for unfair dismissals? Labor s Forward with Fairness policy sets out a new balanced and simple system for dealing with unfair dismissal claims. Labor will protect good workers from being sacked unfairly and we provide simple processes for businesses to be able to use for dealing with unsatisfactory employees. Labor understands that one worker can disrupt a business where there are only a few others at the workplace. Labor recognises that small business owners may not have the time or expertise to comply with the uncertainty and legalism associated with the old unfair dismissal system. That is why Labor s industrial relations policy, Forward with Fairness, includes particular measures to assist small businesses with fewer than 15 employees to manage employee engagement and dismissal. Those initiatives include: an extended period of 12 months before small business employees can make an unfair dismissal claim, to give small business employers time to determine whether an employee is suitable for their business; the provision of advice and assistance to small business through Fair Work Australia, which will have local offices in regional and suburban areas and will be able to go to a workplace or another agreed venue to conduct an unfair dismissal conference if that is suitable to the employer; the development of a Fair Dismissal Code in consultation with small business; a faster, simpler and less costly process for resolving unfair dismissal claims; and a guarantee that reinstatement will not be ordered where it is not in the interests of the employee or the employer s business.

2 Q2. What are your party's views concerning the General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme? Labor believes that employees' hard earned entitlements should be protected against loss when employers fail. Labor is concerned about a number of aspects of the GEER scheme including the Howard Government's amendments which restrict access for employees whose employers enter administration. In Government Labor will work towards developing a national employee entitlements scheme which balances the need to properly protect the entitlements of Australian employees and minimising costs for business. Q3. Please outline your policy on Parental Leave. If elected, Labor will repeal Mr Howard s unfair and extreme Work Choices laws and deliver a new industrial relations system which helps Australians balance work and family life. A Rudd Labor Government will ensure that both parents will have the right to separate periods of up to 12 months of unpaid leave associated with the birth of a baby. Where families prefer one parent to take a longer period of leave, that parent will be entitled to request up to an additional 12 months of unpaid parental leave from their employer. Parents will also have the right to request flexible work arrangements until their child reaches school age. The right of an employee to request extended unpaid parental leave and flexible work arrangements will be subject to the reasonable businesses needs of the employer. An employer will be required to consider and respond to a request, but in the end the employer will be entitled to make a decision based on what is best for their business. Q4. What is your policy concerning giving powers to employers to conduct random drug testing at the workplace?

3 Labor understands that Australian employers are subject to significant obligations under employment law and occupational health and safety law to keep their workplaces and work practices safe. There is no place for drug or alcohol use or abuse in Australian workplaces. Drug testing of employees is one important way for employers to manage this issue. Labor supports the use of drug and alcohol testing where such testing can be directly related to the requirements of an employee's position. Employers should have clear policies and procedures for dealing with alcohol and drug testing so that employees are aware of their rights and obligations. Employee privacy and all applicable laws must be respected by employers at all times. Q5. What is your party's future plans regarding the WorkChoices provisions of the Workplace Relations Act 1996? A Rudd Labor Government will replace Mr Howard s Work Choices laws with a fairer and flexible system. Labor's industrial relations policy Forward with Fairness will balance two core principles: 1. Providing flexibility for business, to keep our economy strong and productive. 2. Ensuring fair laws exist which protect Australian working families. A Rudd Labor Government will get this balance right. Labor will ensure that businesses and employees will have certainty and stability in the transition from Mr Howard s unfair Work Choices laws to Labor s fair and flexible industrial relations system. For more detail on Labor's plans in industrial relations please refer to:

4 Q6. What is your policy on allowing businesses to dismiss employees who are unproductive, or need to be dismissed because of economic downturn? Labor understands that the overwhelming majority of business employers value their employees highly and do not want to lose them and are acutely conscious of the shortage of skilled staff. However there are circumstances where employees are not suitable for a particular business. Labor will develop a Fair Dismissal Code in consultation with small business. The purpose of the Code will be to provide small business owners with clear information so that they can easily understand their rights and obligations under the law about dismissal. Where an employer complies with Labor s Code, the dismissal will be considered a fair dismissal. Labor guarantees that reinstatement will not be ordered where it is not in the interests of the employee or the employer s business. Under Labor s system, employees can be dismissed in cases of genuine redundancy. Where a small business owner has suffered a downturn and needs to reduce staff to reduce costs, the dismissal will be a genuine redundancy and not an unfair dismissal. Similarly, if a small business needs fewer employees due to the use of new technologies or new work practices, this is a redundancy. Small businesses are excluded from Labor s National Employment Standard for redundancy payments. Q7. What are your party's views on temporary business visas? Labor supports a temporary skilled migration program particularly in the context of the current skills shortage brought about by the failure of the Howard Government to enhance Australia s domestic training effort. However, Labor does not support the use of temporary skilled migration to drive down wages and conditions. Unlike the Howard Government s administration of this temporary work visa, Labor will require temporary work visa holders to be paid the going market rate of pay. Labor will maintain the Minimum Salary Level as a base salary within the temporary work visa scheme.

5 Temporary skilled migration should only occur where the relevant position cannot be filled by an Australian or permanent resident or by a permanent migrant with the requisite skills. The vacant position must also be available to Australian workers with the requisite skills at the relevant market rate. Labor will ensure this has been tested before temporary work visas are issued and that overseas qualifications are verified by the appropriate Australian regulatory authority. Labor opposes temporary migration being used as a means of addressing persistent labour or skills shortages and to undercut Awards and collective agreements. Labor believes that the temporary work visa should not be used as short term solution that undermines equity and fairness at work. An assessment of the effective rate of pay would also guarantee that salaries are not undermined through a system of deductions. Q8. How should overseas producers be made to comply with the level of environmental and OHS regulations and requirements faced by local industry? The Howard Government has virtually ignored these so called "behind the border issues" in trade negotiations. Labor has committed to making the resolution of "behind the border issues" a focus of future trade negotiations if elected. The Free Trade Agreements with the United States and elsewhere that have been signed by the Howard Government have not adequately addressed these issues. Labor will use the mid-term reviews of these agreements to try to drive a better outcome. Q9. Would your party support the introduction of a national OHS system? Labor believes that with 9 OHS jurisdictions across Australia, and separate OH&S laws in every State and Territory in Australia, as well as two statutes at the Commonwealth level, and state based industry specific safety laws, more must be done to ensure that multi-state businesses are not caught up in the unnecessary red tape of duplicative standards, laws and administrative processes. The issues of coverage, safety and jurisdiction can only be addressed if the root causes of the problems can be finally resolved though a concerted Federal State/Territory approach to implementing uniformity through cooperative harmonisation.

6 Labor has made a commitment to ending the blame game between Federal and State Governments. Labor has also committed to taking a leadership role for a coordinated national strategy to radically reduce the regulatory burden on Australian businesses. Part of this process outlined by Kevin Rudd earlier this year includes setting a national objective in partnership with the States and Territories to harmonise key laws and regulations which operate across jurisdictions within five years of coming to office, including occupational health and safety regulation. Q10. What is your policy regarding a National Workers Compensation Scheme. Labor believes that Australia OHS and workers compensation can be harmonised to deliver a more competitive and safer working environment. A Rudd Labor Government will make the Productivity Commission, through the COAG Reform Council, responsible for estimating the costs and benefits of harmonisation in areas such as OHS and will provide a financial incentive to reward state and territory governments that implement these reforms. A Rudd Labor Government will reward results and not just promises, using a model similar to that which existed under the National Competition Policy reforms. Q11. Does your party have any plans to review the Business Activity Statements to help address the issue of cash flow difficulties caused by timing of payments? Labor has released a policy called BAS Easy, an option for small business to complete their BAS in minutes. The BAS Easy option would save up to 85 per cent of the time taken to do GST paperwork. Under BAS Easy, businesses will have the option of taking a monthly snapshot of their GST transactions just twice a year. They would then apply the resulting ratio to their GST sales for the rest of the year. Suppose for a business, for those two months, the net GST payable after deducting input tax credits was 5.5 per cent. For the rest of the year, the business would simply multiply its GST sales by 5.5 per cent. No annual reconciliations would be required.

7 BAS Easy is an option. A business that has invested in BAS accounting software and believes it is working well can elect to stay with the existing BAS system. BAS Easy is like the substantiation rules for motor vehicle expenses. Businesses only have to keep a logbook for three months and apply that ratio to subsequent periods. The government allows a system like BAS Easy for small businesses involved in selling food. Why not extend it to all small businesses? That s what Labor would do. BAS Easy has been endorsed by the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA) as a simple and practical answer to the current BAS red tape burden. BAS Easy is an option. Anyone wanting to stay with the existing system would be free to do so. Labor will also raise the compulsory GST registration threshold to $75,000 per annum exempting up to 160,000 micro-businesses from having to do the BAS at all. Q12. What is your party's view and position with respect to environmental labelling? Labor supports a life cycle approach to the evaluation of environmental impacts of goods and services. Where there is a significant variation in environmental impact between comparable products, Labor supports eco-labelling to provide the consumer with the necessary information to make informed purchasing and lifestyle decisions. With specific reference the greenhouse impact of products, a Rudd Labor Government will work with industry, States and Territories to: Improve the six-star Energy Rating Label scheme so that up to ten stars could be awarded to an expanded list of products, including TVs. This would give manufacturers incentives to continually improve their products and give consumers more accurate information to help with their choices. Introduce Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (GEMS) that ensure greenhouse benefits as well as energy savings are factored into standard setting. Fast-track new standards for products including digital set top boxes, computers and home entertainment systems.

8 Formally review existing standards every three years for all major appliances, like fridges and air conditioners, to ensure they keep up with technology improvements. Ensure any up-front costs to consumers are outweighed by savings on energy bills. Accelerate the introduction of the 1 Watt standard for standby power (Standby power consumes up to 10 per cent of all household energy); and Enhance ongoing testing and compliance measures to ensure products meet new standards Q13. Does your party support the application of extended producer responsibilities on imported goods? Labor believes that modern clean industries that minimise resource consumption, waste and pollution generation are central to a sustainable economy. Frameworks for extended producer responsibility schemes are currently being considered by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments through the Environment Protection and Heritage Council, in the development of a Product Stewardship National Environmental Protection Measure. Labor supports the development of a framework for product stewardship agreements for particular sectors, and will work with the States and Territories to ensure this framework meets Australia s unique economic and environmental conditions. Q14. What is your party's policy on carbon taxes? There are two ways to price carbon - either through a carbon tax or through emissions trading. Federal Labor is committed to introducing an effective emissions trading scheme by 2010 that meets the following five tests: An effective scheme must: 1. Be cap and trade to be internationally consistent; 2. Effectively reduce emissions; 3. Be economically responsible; 4. Be Fair; and

9 5. Recognise the urgent need to act. Labor believes an emissions trading scheme needs to commence as soon as possible to ensure a smooth transition to future constraints and to minimise the costs of inaction. Economic modelling clearly shows that early action is far less costly than delayed action. Work should progress to develop a national emissions trading scheme with an objective of starting no later than 2010 with the detailed design finalised by the end of Q15. Would your party be supportive of mandating that a minimum of 20 per cent of government contracts by value should be sourced from local SMEs? Public sector departments and agencies can be inflexible in their dealings with business. The solution is government departments and agencies creating simpler and easier contracts to comply with. The effect of government contracts using unlimited liability clauses and other onerous terms is that SMEs will often not bid for low-value tenders. This restricts competition and drives up prices ultimately paid by taxpayers. The consequence of including onerous terms, where they are not needed, is higher costs in contract performance on business and a greater threat of unbearable liability for SMEs. A Rudd Labor government will order an immediate external audit of Commonwealth procurement policies. This external audit will take submissions from industry groups including small business. It will report on current practices in the Commonwealth public service and recommend reforms to reduce use of onerous terms on low to medium value public contracts. Government departments and agencies will be required to act on it and report on cost savings. This will help small business access the $26 billion government procurement business. Chief Executive of the Association of Consulting Engineers of Australia, Megan Motto has said: Mr Rudd has recognised that many small businesses are unable to contract with governments because of the proliferation of onerous contract terms that seek to shift unmanageable levels of risk to the private sector. Labor will also institute a late payment policy that means government departments and agencies will pay small business invoices within 30 days or be subject to an interest bill.

10 Q16. What is your party's policy on the Australian manufacturing industry? Labor is concerned about the extent to which Australian manufacturing has been neglected by the Howard Government. On Monday 10 September Labor Leader, Kevin Rudd, hosted a National Manufacturing Roundtable at Parliament House in Canberra. This event brought together industry groups, managers of successful manufacturing businesses, representatives of the labour movement and experts in innovation, research and skills development to discuss fresh ideas for the future of manufacturing in Australia. The feedback at this event confirmed that one of Australia's key advantages as a location for manufacturing is its strong record in producing high quality products, and that this needs to be better promoted. The Roundtable discussions also confirmed that a primary focus of industry policy should be encouraging and supporting innovation. That's why Labor has already announced a range of industry innovation measures, including a $100 million network of manufacturing centres to help small and medium sized manufacturers become more innovative and efficient and industry innovation councils for key sectors. To implement Labor's new agenda for innovation, we will also establish a single Department, bringing together responsibility for industry, innovation, science and research policy. Another clear message from the National Manufacturing Roundtable was that innovation policy needs to be integrated with policy settings in areas such as education, training and skills; export promotion and investment attraction; taxation and regulation; infrastructure; and climate change. Each of these areas is critical in its own right, but they are also mutually reinforcing good policy in one area can be undermined by neglect in another. Labor understands this and is also committed to an education revolution, to slashing business red tape, to coordinating trade and industry policies, to fixing infrastructure blockages and to addressing climate change in partnership with industry and the community. Labor is optimistic that, with national leadership and the right policy settings, the Australian manufacturing sector can build on its strengths, increase its innovation focus and compete successfully in the challenging international environment. Q17. What is your policy on the establishment of a uniform national system of training?

11 Labor believes that Australia s economic prosperity can only be guaranteed by training a highly-skilled workforce. Vocational education and training helps Australians develop skills to obtain and perform effectively in secure, sustainable and satisfying employment, and to use those skills to ensure our national economic prosperity. Labor supports the development of a genuinely national system of vocational education and training, with increased resources from government and employers for growth and for improved quality. Labor s vocational education and training policies will be directed towards providing Australians with portable, nationally and mutually recognised and consistent vocational qualifications. Q18. Does your party support allowing industry to determine its own training agenda and implement a framework that is free of external intervention? Labor understands the emerging and ongoing skill shortages faced by business must be addressed. Australia s skills base can only be secured through a sustained commitment to providing training opportunities for more Australians. This task cannot be left to government alone. Labor will encourage more businesses to increase their local training programs. To enable Australian industry to develop, innovate and grow requires support to undertake higher level training, and expand the qualification base of its workers. Labor will ensure that training strategies are linked to industry development policy. Q19. Does your party support the existing Industry Skills Councils? The ongoing development of a national system of vocational education and training, including related national industry standards, must be based on expert advice from those directly involved, both employers and employees. Labor supports a national network of Industry Skills Councils, with members from both employer associations and unions.

12 In addition to the existing Industry Skills Councils, Labor is also committed to establishing a new Forest and Forest Products Industry Skills Council. Q20. What is your party's policy with respect to indexing the personal income tax brackets to the Consumer Price Index? While automatically indexing personal income tax thresholds would reduce the extent of 'bracket creep' and undoubtedly produce ongoing benefits for taxpayers it may reduce the scope for Government to meet longer term tax objectives. Given the prevalence of high effective marginal tax rates and their negative impact on workforce participation, skill formation, and enterprise, reducing marginal tax rates would be a higher priority for Labor in Government than automatically indexing thresholds. It should also be noted that with the exception of the tax free threshold all current tax thresholds are higher than they would otherwise would have been if they were indexed to CPI alone over the last 20 years. Q21. Would your party support the alignment of the top marginal tax rate with the corporate tax rate on the condition that taxes are not raised in achieving such an alignment? Australia's imputation system significantly reduces tax arbitrage caused by the differential between the corporate and top personal income tax rates. Nevertheless the differential does provide some incentive for companies to retain earnings to take advantage of timing effects. Labor is committed to keeping our taxation system internationally competitive and that includes assessing the level of Australia's top marginal tax rates and the differential with corporate taxes. Seeking to reduce the differential by increasing the corporate tax rate would reduce the attractiveness of investment in Australian businesses and as such would not be supported by Labor.

13 Q22. Would your party support exempting capital investment from the GST as a way of helping reduce the amount funds required to invest in technology? Federal Labor recognises the importance of capital investment to ensure businesses have access to the latest technology to provide innovative products to the market and to boost productivity. Federal Labor is committed to ongoing business tax reform to ensure there are appropriate incentives for capital investment, however changing the application of the GST would not be Labor's preferred mechanism. The GST paid on a capital acquisition by a GST registered business already gives rise to an input tax credit that is refunded to the business in the course of its Business Activity Statement obligations. While many businesses would no doubt prefer not to pay GST which they will be refunded anyway, this system is integral to compliance associated with this tax, and steps to change it would give rise to cash flow and administrative complexity for suppliers who would be required to provide goods and services GST free or on an input taxed basis. Q23. Will the removal of the Capital Gains Tax on sale of plant and equipment be supported by your party? Eligible small businesses currently have access to a range of capital gains tax concessions and exemptions subject to the circumstances of sale, holding time of the assets, turnover thresholds and assets tests. Labor is commited to ensuring these exemptions and concessions are adequate. More broadly Labor recognises the importance of capital investment to ensure businesses have access to the latest technology to provide innovative products to the market and to boost productivity. Labor is committed to ongoing business tax reform to ensure there are appropriate incentives for capital investment. Q24. Would your party support subjecting all future Free Trade Agreements (FTA's) to economic modeling at sectoral level?

14 Labor believes that the main focus should be on multinational negotiations through the Doha round and beyond. We believe that bilateral and regional agreements do have a place but only in so far as they are consistent with, and enhance, multinational outcomes. The current government has delivered a spagetti bowl of bilateral free trade agreements with more to come. These have been inconsistent with negotiations for a multinational outcome and even with each other. If elected, a Labor government would make sorting out this mess a matter of real priority. Q25. What is your policy on hard copy annual reports? Does your party support the introduction of a transition period before the default option of having annual reports distributed electronically is introduced? Labor believes that transparency, accountability and disclosure are at the core of good corporate governance. Shareholders should have sufficient access to company information including annual reports. However Labor is also committed to reducing regulatory burden for business. In reducing regulatory burden for business, Labor will take into account the contribution that disclosure makes to ensure the efficiency of our capital markets as well as the ability of stakeholders to obtain information relevant to decision-making. In May, Labor supported changes in the Corporate Legislations Amendment (Simpler Regulatory Systems) Bill One of the changes in the bill means that the production of hard copies of reports will be reduced through an amendment which allows companies to make copies of their annual report on a website and only provide copies to members on request. These changes have already passed through the Parliament and Labor does not believe further amendments are required at this stage. Q26. Would your party support the introduction of a printing industry specific succession planning program funded by the government? Succession planning is critical for the long term health of businesses across all industry sectors. Labor has no current policy to fund a specific succession planning

15 program for the printing industry. However, a Rudd Labor Government will establish a constructive ongoing dialogue with a range of industry sectors that will, among other things, help to identify the need for any such specific measures. In particular, Federal Labor has committed to establish Industry Innovation Councils to develop and implement industry innovation strategies for key sectors. The Councils will comprise high level decision makers from industry, unions, Commonwealth and State/Territory governments and the science and innovation community. The establishment of such councils is aimed at building strong, productive and ongoing working relationships among all participants in the value chain, to establish new directions and initiatives aimed at: productivity, global competitiveness and market access to secure the future of the sector; achieving best practice in employment and training to build a highly skilled and flexible workforce for the 21st century; and ensuring the sustainable development of each sector. As part of this program, Labor will establish a Wood and Paper Industry Innovation Council to review current industry arrangements, identify new markets and assist the industry to reach its potential. It is envisaged that the printing industry would be a key player in this Council and that this will provide an opportunity for the industry to ensure that its concerns are considered in a whole-of-government context. Q27. Would your party support making funds available for a printing industry adjustment packages to support printing companies to restructure or exit the industry? Federal Labor has a history of working cooperatively with industry sectors that are facing adjustment pressures. The Wood and Paper Industry Innovation Council, described in response to Question 26 above, will provide an opportunity for the printing industry to identify its concerns in relation to restructuring and to work with a Rudd Labor Government to ensure these concerns are addressed. Q28. The printing industry has existing bodies that undertake R&D activities. Will your party support by way of government funding those existing bodies?

16 A Rudd Labor Government will continue to support existing industry R&D bodies, in line with Labor s longstanding commitment to R&D and innovation. There is a broad consensus that a focus on innovation is critical to the survival of manufacturing in Australia both for revitalising mature industries and for the development of sunrise industries. R&D is a critical part of the innovation cycle. Labor understands this. It was Labor that introduced the 150 per cent R&D tax concession, the Cooperative Research Centres program, the National Industries Extension Service (NIES) and a range of other R&D and innovation programs. On its election, the Howard Government halved the R&D tax concession and abolished NIES. As a result, average annual growth in business R&D spending in the manufacturing sector has fallen from 16.6 per cent under Labor to only 5 per cent in the subsequent decade. Labor has released a ten point plan to revitalise Australia s innovation system. This plan, outlined in New Directions for innovation, competitiveness and productivity, recognises that, rather than simply a standalone federal innovation policy, support for innovation must be integrated with other policies to build a coordinated national approach. Labor s ten point plan for an innovative Australia will: 1. Build a culture of innovation and new ideas by strengthening investment in creativity and knowledge generation. 2. Focus incentives for business R&D to promote global competitiveness, delivering the best outcomes for exports and economic growth. 3. Accelerate the take up of new technology, so Australian firms can access the best ideas from around Australia and the rest of the world. 4. Make Australia s innovation system truly international, by supporting partnerships, collaboration and foreign investment in Australian R&D. 5. Use government procurement to support innovative Australian firms. 6. Strengthen publicly funded innovation and research infrastructure and improve industry s access to the knowledge and expertise in universities and research agencies. 7. Strengthen the skill base for innovation, including in maths, science and engineering, and professional training for firms to manage innovation. 8. Develop and implement a set of national innovation priorities, with a broader focus than the current national research priorities.

17 9. Strengthen the governance of the national innovation system to support higher expectations of government agencies and industry. 10. Review the bewildering array of government innovation and industry assistance programs to reduce duplication and improve effectiveness. Q29. Does your party have specific policies that encourage greater printing to be undertaken in Australia particularly by government departments, agencies and corporations? Labor will put in place an aggressive local industry participation policy, consistent with our World Trade Organisation (WTO) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) obligations regarding purchase of imported goods and services, and our commitment to purchasing the product with lowest whole of life cost. This policy will ensure that all government departments see their purchasing activities as a key element in industry development, that significant outlays of Commonwealth funds conform with the policy, and that government agencies will be required to purchase from Australian and New Zealand suppliers who are price and quality competitive. The policy will provide a price reference advantage for Australian suppliers of 20 per cent with an additional five per cent for those companies in regional Australia and will ensure that all goods are ethically sourced and that the process ensures that the aims of the policy can be adequately implemented, subject to international commitments and/or obligations. Q30. Does your party support a fixed 4 year term for both houses of Parliament? Labor supports simultaneous, fixed four-year terms for the House of Representatives and the Senate.