{"id":31978,"date":"2016-04-16T18:07:36","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T08:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=31978"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:54:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:54:15","slug":"tears-queensland-nickel-and-the-moral-hazard-analysis-qldaah-qldpol-auspol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/tears-queensland-nickel-and-the-moral-hazard-analysis-qldaah-qldpol-auspol\/","title":{"rendered":"Tears, Queensland Nickel and the ‘moral hazard’: Analysis\u00a0– @Qldaah #qldpol #auspol"},"content":{"rendered":"
Parliamentary records show how in 2014 the Abbott Government attempted to erode the remuneration component of the Fair Entitlements Guarantee.<\/h6>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"FEG,<\/p>\n

Queensland Coalition MP\u00a0Ewan Jones <\/a>teared up on Friday as he spoke of the hardship facing\u00a0workers in his electorate of Herbert after the collapse of\u00a0Clive Palmer’s<\/a>\u00a0Queensland Nickel refinery near Townsville.<\/p>\n

“This is a tough day,” he blubbed before being\u00a0consoled with\u00a0reassuring pats from Senator Michaelia Cash<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cash spruiked her government’s commitment to the workers through the\u00a0Fair Entitlements Guarantee<\/a>\u00a0(FEG) scheme.<\/p>\n

“I have exercised discretion under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme so that former Queensland Nickel workers can access a contribution towards their unpaid entitlements,” she said.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"ABC<\/a>

ABC News 24: Senator Michaelia Cash comforts MP for Herbert Ewen Jones.<\/p><\/div>\n

However, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations\u00a0Brendan O’Connor<\/a>\u00a0criticised the crocodile tears of\u00a0the\u00a0Jones and Cash show.<\/p>\n

“He (Jones) voted to cut their entitlements under law,” O’Connor told the media.<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking from Japan, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull<\/a>\u00a0countered by saying that O’Connor had no heart.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet in 2014, it was a very different story from the budget surplus seeking government of\u00a0Tony Abbott<\/a>. In his second reading of the\u00a0Fair Entitlements Guarantee Amendment Bill 2014<\/a>, Leader of the House and Minister for Education Christopher Pyne described the FEG\u00a0scheme as a ‘moral hazard’; a righteous threat to life.<\/p>\n

“This level of protection is very generous by community standards. It creates a moral hazard\u2014it provides an incentive for employers and unions to sign up to unsustainable redundancy entitlements, safe in the knowledge that if the company fails, the Fair Entitlements Guarantee and the Australian taxpayer will pay for it,” he told the House of Representatives in 2014.<\/p>\n

The objective was to save the government money\u00a0by not having to pay out as much to cover a collapsed company that had no funds\u00a0to pay out its’ sacked workers. In summary<\/a>, the bill amended, “the Fair Entitlements Guarantee Act 2012 to cap the maximum amount of redundancy pay entitlement available under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme at 16 weeks; and make technical amendments to clarify the operation of the scheme.”<\/p>\n

\n

Sorry for getting teary. It is really the end of the line for a lot of people. The FEG is good for the people but bad for Townsville city<\/p>\n

— Ewen Jones MP (@EwenJonesMP) April 15, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n