KEVIN Rudd and Wayne Swan are coming under increasing pressure to water down their industrial relations laws and delay the emissions trading scheme because of the prospect of more job losses during a recession.
Business groups, who were relatively quiet before the election because of the likelihood of the change of government, have found a new voice as economic growth slows and cost-cutting begins to bite.
While the Treasurer and Prime Minister are still not conceding Australia is in recession the reality is employers and employees know they are in a recession.
Rudd is now faced with the diabolical choice of keeping core election promises on climate change and industrial relations and being seen to be holding on to ideological positions at the expense of Australian workers’ jobs.
The pressure is mounting because next week the Government releases its exposure draft on the emission trading scheme and pushes its industrial relations legislation into the Senate.
Rudd has to maintain a wider political strategy of trying to “cushion” Australian workers from the recessionary effects of the global financial crisis at the same time he holds to a tactic of giving nothing away until both issues are before the senate.
The Senate is where any changes will occur to both proposals and the Government can’t afford to give concessions before the hard bargaining begins.
That’s why the Government is stomping on any interpretation of the Prime Minister’s remarks earlier today that the emissions trading scheme could be delayed until “the end of 2010”.
Loose language under pressure is the last thing Rudd can afford.
