Australia’s Labour Party released a consultation draft for the party’s national platform which takes aim at labour hire as well as skilled migration and contingent work in the public sector.

The draft's release comes ahead of the 48th Australian Labour Party National Conference, which will be held in July 2018.

The consultation draft states that corporations are "shifting risk to workers or avoiding workplace obligations through otherwise legal arrangements such as franchising, outsourcing, subcontracting, and the use of labour hire.”

The Labour Party stated that it will “seek to protect labour hire workers, ensuring enterprise agreements are agreed to by a representative cohort, and pledges to "prevent the unilateral termination of enterprise agreements".

Taking aim at the public sector 'efficiency dividend' model, Labour says it will "encourage direct employment and limit hiring on a contract basis and the use of labour hire".

"Too much taxpayer money is being wasted on contractors, consultants and labour hire firms to do some of the work", which public servants can, in some cases, do at lower cost,” the draft document states.

Labour added that “Permanent skilled migration is preferable to temporary skilled migration” and it will ensure skilled vacancies "are filled by local workers first".

The draft stated that ongoing consultation with industry, unions, the education sector and state and territory governments will inform policy in this area, and it will identify "emerging skill shortages in particular sectors and complement domestic training policies to fill those shortages". It adds that where unions have existing rights to assess applications for imported workers, those rights should be retained.

This year, the labour hire landscape saw Queensland implement Australia’s “Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017” on 16 April 2018.

Meanwhile, in March 2018, Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Sally McManus proposed sweeping changes to workplace laws including an overhaul of labour hire. Recruitment and Consulting Services Association CEO Charles Cameron criticised McManus’s proposals, stating that labour hire work has decreased in the past 20 years.

For more on upcoming legislation in Australia, refer to SIA’s 2018 Asia Pacific Legal Calendar.