The creation by Labor leader Kevin Rudd of a shadow ministry for independent contractors is suddenly changing the political debate about workplace issues. And new spokesman Craig Emerson has entered the debate with a fresh approach.
The big shift is the ALP's new public and policy acceptance of independent contractors. This is a response to the government's major workplace legislation, the Independent Contractors Act.
It's also a recognition by the ALP that the independent contractor community is large but not naturally aligned to any political party. Emerson has stated that independent contractors see themselves as neither "capital" nor "labour". They view traditional workplace class consciousness as irrelevant.
An interesting comparison emerges. The coalition's Independent Contractor Act is controlled by the minister for employment. This sends a signal that -- administratively and bureaucratically -- the government is still treating independent contractors as a subset of employees. But the ALP has placed independent contractors firmly within a commercial and business portfolio. The apparently small administrative detail signals a major mind-set difference.
It's normally expected that unions want to drag independent contractors into their sphere of control. The usual expectation of an ALP opposition is that it makes enticing noises towards independent contractors but ultimately seeks to deliver them to unions when in government. This has been the process experienced with many state ALP governments. But placing independent contractors in a separate business portfolio disconnected from union and industrial relations agendas creates new expectations of a potential Rudd government. Business commonsense may prevail.
When the bill was debated in parliament, speeches from ALP MPs made independent contractors sound like traitors to their alleged working-class roots. ALP members often sounded like former union officials appealing to their union mates who control ALP preselections.
But Emerson is different. He comes from an academic economics background. Over many years, he has established a reputation as a well-researched ideas person. In interviews on the independent contractor issue he has emphasised the non-ideological and practical nature of small business. He says independent contractors are small businesses that don't employ anyone and their issues are business issues.
This is the language to which independent contractors relate. It doesn't traditionally appeal to unions. But even at the union level there is a shift. At the senate inquiry into the Independent Contractors Bill the ACTU accepted the common law definition for independent contractors used in the legislation. And Emerson has not committed the ALP to repeal the act.
What does this demonstrate? In isolation, the issue is not an election decider. Independent contractors, numbering about 1.9 million with their small-business soul mates who employ up to five people, do not vote as a class block. Their political views and allegiances are as diverse as the total community's. It is how the political parties choose to perceive and talk to this group that is interesting. Everyone expects a Howard government to be anti-union; but it is when the ALP starts to be perceived as pro-business that change begins to look real.
The ALP's new position on independent contractors is a potential indicator of a determination to engage with the small-business sector at its own level. Rudd may have important union supporters on this. Whether this is maintained is yet to be seen.
Further, the ALP's new keenness for independent contractors will be tested in its policy detail. For example, Emerson has indicated a desire to potentially fiddle with common law definitions. But this could upset stable commercial relationships for independent contractors and alienate the sector.
Independent contracting has grown despite substantial legal and institutional blockages. Independent contractors are businesses. The capacity to have legally secure business-to-business relations no matter what the business size, supported by political consensus, is essential to healthy business and a successful economy.
Politically and institutionally, accepting that independent contractors are not employees is a plus for Australia.
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