Graeme makes loads of very good points.

However while it should be easy it never is. All change attracts resistance. There is always a large slice of the population that sees any change as being too risky. People are typically conservative.

Its a pity because a free market in labour would be a very good thing

Employ all workers on a sub-contractor basis and watch our economy boom.Insurance companies lawyers and Govt Beauracies will be excluded from the public trough,and more money will be in the hands of those who really matter,the ones responsible for economic productivity.
Alas,it will never happen, since most politicians are lawyers and they make the rules for insurance companies and Govt to interfere in our lives.

IN REGARDS TO LABOUR MARKET REFORM.

PART-1

I find the writer ignorant of workers rights and the concept of working freedoms,he stands for a slave labour state with a low-class employment status compared with the status of the management/business owner,he also shows a knowledge of the capatitalist princible in which workers no longer control/own thier market labour value and the selling out of his/her entitlements and secriuty for a ''workplace agreement''.
Our workers now become a commodity,and not the products/services they provide being the commidity,in other words,we dont trade the product/service we trade the human labour and its value,thus removing it from the hands of the employee and into the grasp of the employers
The AWA'S now become the modern capatitalist tool,thus removing the non-controllable union,their bosses.and their ethics,with a controllable,dictatable workplace agreement.
It's not a bad idea to amalgamate the six seperate styate and federal industrial relation systems into the one national case,the writer says that they are equally dysfunctional anyway.
Your not of this reality when you say,and i quote ''Workers primarily want money in return for their labours,sure they will take the sick pay or the redundancy entitlement if its on offer,but if you actually give then the chioce between the benifit and a cash value they will take the money all the time''
This statement is obsurd and a long way from the truth.

Sheoakmax unfortunately is far more ignorant of worker's potential than Graeme's ignornance on industrial relations.Notice how the left wing mentality is constantly consumed with rights and notions of capitalist exploitation.With all the rules , regulations and union interference, worker productivity has declined and wages has followed.There are just too many interest groups stealing worker's hard earned tax dollars in the guise of protecting their interest.

Put all workers on contract,pay them double and watch everyone prosper.

IN REGARDS TO LABOUR MARKET REFORMS

PART-2

Workers do not want just ''money'' they need job security,entitlements,retirement funds,etc,etc,and if you havent noticed banks require this for a small personal loan(not to mention large home and car loans),thus,Australian workers prefer,need and want that cash value and the benifits(i know my past generations battled and won this basic right) ,but of course the ''cash value'' is promoted,that way employers are not obligated.
To support casual employment is to promote profit and labour ownership at the cost of labour availability and the increased employment of workers in that casual,or part-time work,can and will result in a economic downturn,not to mention a skill shortage,get it right if you want to state that ''we have major skill shortages in this country'',its becouse of such things as employment aggencies,job network systems,and the constant reliance on job-seeker resume's,the old fashiond notion of ''get in and have a go,that way you will gain experience'' has been taken from us.
investigate what type of country you are really living in ''YOU NEED TO BE A SAINT JUST TO WORK IN A FACTORY PACKING BOXES,entry level employment you simply cannot get anywhere,the standards that Australian busines want in thier workers,entry levell or experience are wrong and stupid,thats why most jobs are not filled quickly,and then employers claim Australians dont want to work,they cant work if there not givern a go,esp-to learn new skills.
It is true that most employers want,and will,pay workers as little as possible,and now with the introduction of AWA'S there gaining a licence to do so,not to mention the threat of ''NO SIHNING OF A AWA-NO JOB''.
Whats wrong with workers gaining a higher hourly/pay rate for weekend work(or night work)when its out-of traditional working days/hours,next you will want no special rates to be paid for public holidays(most public holidays should be obolised anyway due to social issue's,such as banks waiting to transfer funds,or cheques not clearing,due to banks programming the computers to hold,that way computers have a day off as well ! ).

IN REGARDS TO LABOUR MARKET REFORM

PART-3

''Remove all monopoly representation rights for unions"".
Unions are not the ''save Australia'' organizations they claim to be,however without them there would be a increased amount of low-income workers and selfish employers not to mention workers living in poverty.
This article shows how the writer,of it,and people like him,are out of touch with the reality of the Australian society and it's conditions