Peter Dutton is being pressured to make unfair dismissal fairer for small business owners, but, by definition, the message tells over 12 million workers/voters that the man who would be PM could make it easier to get you the sack!

This might be better economics but if he runs with this, Dutton would be handing the election to Anthony Albanese and his team, who currently are looking to be lucky to get a second term.

The high cost of living, the slow fall in inflation, the interest rate cuts (that are a long time coming) and the belief that tax cuts and other policies to help annoyed voters have made it harder for the Reserve Bank to reduce rates, all could explain why the Coalition is ahead in the polls.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s chief executive Andrew McKellar is spearheading this suggestion to make unfair dismissal laws fairer for bosses and has argued that the definition of a small business should be raised from 15 employees to 25.

Objectively, McKellar isn’t asking for too much, given the one-sided nature of the unfair dismissal laws that not only help employees exploited by bad employers, but they provide scope for some employees to game the system to get “go away” money.

Predictably, The Australian’s Ewan Hannan has captured the reaction of the unions with the following: “Unions slammed the employer plan as a ‘green light for bad bosses’, warning up to one million workers would have their unfair dismissal rights, protections from wage theft and job security protections taken from them if the business lobby got its way.”

Hannan reports that “…the Business Council of Australia also called for the opposition to go beyond its pledge to drop casual employment changes and new right-to-disconnect laws and also scrap multi-employer bargaining, same job.”

These are all big asks for the Coalition ahead of next year’s election. It might be okay for employers to ask for changes that will help their bottom lines and reduce the gaming of the unfair dismissal system, but these demands aren’t useful for winning over voters and influencing Australians who are not employers.

Sensible politics says that Peter Dutton should play the same game as Labor before the last election, after which the then Workplace Relations minister, Tony Burke, shocked many employers with his changes to casual employment workers, wage rises and the right to disconnect law.

Interestingly, the idea of redefining small business as an operation with 25 employees or less means that those employers would then have 12 months to work out if an employee is worth keeping, without having the worry that the dismissed employee could take them for unfair dismissal. Right now, only small businesses with 15 or less employees have that year to assess how fair dinkum a worker is.

This change looks like a good idea, but it would still be portrayed by Labor and the unions that it would be unfair to employees working in a small business. Sure, the 2.5 million small businesses in Australia would like these proposed changes but these business owners are likely to be Coalition voters anyway.

The business groups in this country might know what their constituency might want but these demands would make it very hard for Peter Dutton to win the next election.

If you need proof, just look at how the new Minister for Workplace Relations, Murray Watt, reacted to these recommendations from the employer groups: “Make no mistake – Peter Dutton will have his hand in your pocket the moment he becomes Prime Minister. With Australians under cost-of-living pressure, it’s hard to think of a worse possible time to be cutting wages and job security, but that’s exactly what the Coalition are promising.”

While Watt’s interpretation is predictable from Labor, what employer groups are asking for is not a great pre-election marketing message for the Coalition!