Labor's best promises

The more business looks at the Rudd policies the more they like them, particularly given the bad government –outside management of the economy and building industry reform – that we have seen from the Coalition. Too many of John Howard's people simply ran out of puff.

So today I will list 10 Rudd polices that business likes. Tomorrow I will list their Rudd fears – and they have big fears.

Of course it's one thing to promote policies in Opposition and quite another to introduce them in Government. Areas like business deregulation were proposed in similar terms in the early years of the Howard Government but were given "yes minister” treatment by the public service.

They will try it again. So what is stated in the policy and what actually makes it into law, should Rudd win the election, may be very different. But policies are a good start.

Here are the ten accolades:

Commercial building
Rudd has embraced the greatest achievements of Howard's latest term in this industry, minus the Government purchasing code. Building contractors have poured money into Labor coffers and the building industry unions in NSW are saying that they can see little difference between Rudd and Howard. Given that Howard reduced commercial building and infrastructure costs by between 15 and 30 per cent from what they would have been, this is wonderful news for everyone wanting to invest in Australia. The workers also win – they now have more pay and greater safety. Only the unions complain because they lost control of building sites and the appointment of sub-contractors.

Industrial relations
Two bad ministers – Kevin Andrews and Joe Hockey – took the WorkChoices legislation from being too favourable to employers to one that is totally unworkable for anyone. It will slash productivity. The ALP is offering awards that have a clear base but are flexible on matters like rostering and hours of work and rates of pay. They even provide that certain award conditions may not apply where an employee is paid above a fixed award percentage and where an arrangement exists to allow the employee to start and finish work early to allow them to collect their children from school without the employer paying additional penalty rates for the early start. That's what WorkChoices was supposed to be.

Signing Kyoto
The promise to sign Kyoto will mean that we can really start to develop a global environmental industry and be proud of ourselves as Australian in this arena.

The pulp mill
Rudd stood up to the greenies and others and agreed to the Tasmanian pulp mill. This is a good sign that he will stick to his guns and take hard decisions.

Web 2.0
He is going to install the infrastructure for Australia to embrace 'web 2.0' which will transform productivity for the following decade – just as web 1.0 did in the past decade. But it won't be easy. Coalition Communications Minister Helen Coonan could not work out how to do it. Stephen Conroy's $4.7 billion plan looks promising, but may be snagged.

Skills migration
Australia needs better provision for skills migration. Currently Kevin Andrews is stopping the entry of key $100,000 to $200,000-plus salaried people who are desperately needed.

Independent contractors
Support for independent contracting is important as it is now a huge part of business infrastructure. If Rudd tried to turn the clock back we would face an IR train wreck.

Unfair dismissal
We need a better definition of when a person is dismissed unfairly. Recently a person who drove across the Sydney airport runway area and committed other offences was deemed to be unfairly dismissed. If there are proper definitions and interpretations of unfair dismissals and not just an almost automatic payout for anyone dismissed, Rudd will be a hero.

Infrastructure
Labor's Infrastructure Australia initiative will evaluate the demand for infrastructure in areas such as roads, health and education. This could be a bureaucratic nightmare, but in theory it might help.

Business deregulation
I left the best until last – business deregulation. The shadow minister, Craig Emerson, says: "Enough reviews have been completed. What is needed is concrete action. Reducing the regulatory burden starts with the Commonwealth but needs to extend to the states and local councils and to jurisdictional overlap between the three levels of government.” These are wonderful words, but action will not be easy. Emerson illustrates the policy with payroll tax where he says states and territories will retain control over individual rates and thresholds, but a Rudd government will simplify and harmonise provisions, cutting red tape for thousands of Australian businesses.

Common provisions will be adopted for the timing of lodgement; motor vehicle allowances; a range of fringe benefits; work performed outside a jurisdiction; employee share acquisition schemes; superannuation for non-working directors; and grouping of business.

In addition, the Australian Taxation Office will be instructed to provide small restaurants, cafes and caterers with access to the simplified accounting method for calculating their GST liability and input tax credits. This will be a real test for the "yes minister” Australian public service approach.

On top of all these benefits for business, Rudd speaks Mandarin – the language of our main trading partner. No other western leader can do this. It's a huge advantage for Australia.