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Coalition risks 'inciting opposition' by failing to sell need for industrial relations reform

<span>Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span>
Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

The former head of the Productivity Commission has warned that the Morrison government is failing to sell the need for industrial relations reforms.

Speaking on Thursday ahead of the full release of the industrial relations omnibus bill next week, Gary Banks said it was “a bit of a concern” the Coalition had not set out the problems it was aiming to solve.

The comments come before consultations on Friday with the states and territories on the reforms relating to casual employment, award simplification, workplace pay deal making, deals for new worksites, and compliance.

Related: ACTU head Sally McManus calls for halving of insecure work by 2030

On Thursday, the Queensland industrial relations minister, Grace Grace, accused the Morrison government of failing to “properly consult” the states, and federal Labor warned it would not brook changes that compromise secure work and decent pay.

The package is expected to be a mixed bag, providing limited regulatory relief to employers in the retail, hospitality and restaurant sectors but potentially angering unions over changes to the better-off-overall test and part-time workers’ pay.

Banks, chair of the government’s economic reform thinktank from 1998 until 2013, urged the Coalition to “go past what the warring parties [employer and employee representatives] will agree to” in search of reforms to boost productivity.

Banks told a webinar hosted by employment law firm Kingston Reid that governments needed to bring the public along to achieve reform.

That was especially so where there were institutional opponents or the changes were controversial or had distributional impacts, creating winners and losers, he said.

“It can’t be done quickly or easily. It’s a bit of a concern to me that we’re not hearing more about the problems at this point,” Banks said.

“Any proposals that seem to come out of left field just incite opposition and are going to be very troubling, if the public doesn’t know there is a problem and have a strong sense of that.”

The industrial relations minister, Christian Porter, has begun to lay the groundwork for changes to awards setting pay and conditions in the industries hardest hit by Covid-19, including accommodation, food services and retail trade.

Related: Union push to improve delivery riders’ pay and conditions after five deaths in two months

On Wednesday Porter told the lower house, in response to a government question in question time, that reform could help these “most distressed industries with the greatest award reliance”.

Porter noted that while some awards such as hospitality allowed permanent part-time workers to easily take on extra hours, others like retail imposed “significant restrictions that discourage that type of agreement”.

Removing those barriers could encourage employers to hire workers as permanent part-time rather than casual, as Coles and Woolworths did, he said.

Porter suggested the reform process could ensure businesses could offer part-time workers more hours “at their usual rates of pay” by “reasonable and fair agreement” and in doing so remove a barrier to “more permanent work”.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions bristled at similar comments in October, which secretary Sally McManus warned could reduce penalty rates and take-home pay.

The industrial relations bill is expected to give employers the option of project-life pay deals for large and nationally significant projects and to bolster secure work by giving casuals a right to convert to permanent positions after an extended period of employment.

McManus said unions had proposed extended pay deals for new worksites which would only apply to large resource construction projects worth more than $5bn.

“Unfortunately the mining and resource employers rejected this reasonable and sensible offer and pushed for agreements being doubled in length, expanding the scope so even construction sites in cities are covered and locking workers out of any fair means to resolving issues as they arise,” she said.

Related: Unions push for better protections as 80% of employees say they want to keep working from home

In an appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, McManus warned that unions would fight changes cutting take-home pay, a stance backed by Labor’s shadow industrial relations minister, Tony Burke on Thursday.

In Queensland, Grace told parliament the Morrison government is obliged to “meaningfully consult” on Fair Work Act changes but to date the state had “not had any formal consultation on the content of any changes being proposed”.

“This is not good enough, and the Morrison government must properly consult on any changes to IR laws,” she said. “Any changes must be for the betterment of workers and their workplaces, particularly in the area of casual employment.”