David Alexander interview on 4BC on workplace relations and government procurement
Transcript: 4 June 2026
Jason Matthews:
And now a sneaky move buried in a federal bill has the business community furious and worried. Right now there is an explicit anti-discrimination rule in the Fair Work Act that stops the government from favouring unionised companies over non-unionised ones when handing out taxpayer contracts. Well, that's something Labor's about to scrap. It will give itself permission to discriminate against the most efficient companies in favour of businesses with trade union endorsed arrangements. This is frightening. This is typical. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industries Chief of Policy and Advocacy David Alexander says this should send a chill down the spine of the entire business community. David joins me now. Good morning, David.
David Alexander:
Thanks, Jason.
Jason Matthews:
Take us through this procurement rule and has this been pushed through yet?
David Alexander:
No, it was tabled yesterday in the parliament and you're right to say that up till now the Commonwealth has been prevented explicitly from discriminating against businesses who don't have union agreements at the workplace. So this changes that to give the Commonwealth the power to discriminate against businesses who don't have union endorsed arrangements. So this is of enormous consequence. It's essentially rigging the system to favour inefficient union-friendly deals at the expense of efficient businesses that don't deal with unions. So we regard it as a terrible development and we're calling on all parliamentarians to reject this bill.
Jason Matthews:
I don't even know if this is legal, but we'll talk about that later on. This is the bit that really makes me angry and this is another reason why I don't trust this government. The change has been buried inside a bill meant to fix an AI spam crisis. I mean, what's this got to do with that?
David Alexander:
Yeah, indeed. It's got nothing to do with it really. So it's an innocuous bill otherwise to do with the Fair Work Commission getting spammed with all sorts of AI generated complaints. So fair enough. But buried inside this bill is this awful provision. And so we're drawing attention to it because it's serious consequences. I mean, there are thousands of businesses in all sorts of industries that contract the government and they don't have union backed enterprise agreements and they could now be essentially locked out of bidding for contracts. They will be non-preferred. And so this is a very serious development and that's why we're calling on parliamentarians to reject it.
Jason Matthews:
David, to me, it just sounds like the government's looking after their union mates. Is it that straightforward?
David Alexander:
Yeah. So the unions have been pushing for this and now they've got what they want. It's essentially, yes, helping the trade unions. We know that there's a strong government connection with the trade unions, but that doesn't mean that they should just bow to the wishes of the unions. They should be standing up for the Australian people against bad arrangements. And this one is obviously bad. As I say, it's going to rig the system in favour of inefficiency. You'll just get a structural shift away from the most efficient contracting to ones that are union-friendly that are slower inefficient cost blowouts. It's really a very worrying development.
Jason Matthews:
David, this is BPIC, Mark II. We've just gotten rid of this in Queensland. It destroyed our state. It slowed productivity, pushed the price of everything up. This is BPIC, Mark, II but at a federal level.
David Alexander:
Yeah. So the lessons from disasters in the construction sector in Queensland in Victoria is that linking government procurement practises with enterprise bargaining is going to guarantee cost blowouts, inefficiencies, delays, union misbehaviour. And so this is going to go beyond construction. This is not limited to construction. It could be in all sorts of industries, aged care, technology, defence across the board. It's Commonwealth procurement.
Jason Matthews:
If we start locking out the most efficient competitive businesses from public contracts, what will this do to building productivity? I'm just assuming that it'll fall incredibly and nothing will get done.
David Alexander:
Yeah. So I think there's a tendency for governments to use procurement programmes to engineer their own favoured outcomes in favoured sectors. It's at the expense of the broad public interest. So it can seem very harmless in a way for governments to twist the procurement arrangements to a certain sector, but it has a broader cost and really that needs to be factored in, in the whole thinking about it.
Jason Matthews:
And David, as we're learning in the CFMEU inquiry here in Queensland, it just allows corruption and bullying to run rife. There's no other way of putting it.
David Alexander:
Yeah. So we've been deeply concerned at the CFMEU's activities in Queensland, in Victoria, in other states as well. It's just been a disaster for the public, for the cost blowouts and for the broader corruption implications as well. It's adding hugely to costs of construction and that flows through into the costs for everyone, for building offices, factories, residential across the board.
Jason Matthews:
Yeah, no, it's disgusting. David Alexander from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, chief of policy and advocacy. I appreciate your time this morning, mate. We'll stay on top of this. This should not be allowed to chuck in a bill inside a bill for AI spam crisis, one that is only going to allow procurement from union-backed businesses. This is a disgrace. David, we'll keep on top of this. Thanks for your time.
David Alexander:
Thanks, Jason.