In its short history, the West Australian shipbuilder has earned a global reputation for high-quality vessels, with the US Department of Defense among its growing customer base.

Like many employees in workplaces across Australia, Austal’s 1000 workers are meeting the challenges of a modern workplace in a highly competitive international economy.

Austal was thrust into the national political debate last week after Opposition Leader Kim Beazley bowed to union pressure and promised to scrap Australian workplace agreements.

If Mr Beazley wants to understand how his AWA rollback could hurt Australian businesses, he only has to take a short trip from his Perth home to Fremantle to talk to the workers and management at Austal.

Fremantle is reaping the dividends of economic growth. When my Government came to office in 1996, the electorate of Fremantle had an unemployment rate of 9.8 per cent. It is now 4.1 per cent.

Austal lauds the stability and productivity of its skilled workforce. Steve Murdoch, the chief operating officer of Austal, says the survival of his half-billion dollar company depends on the AWA system.

One of Austal’s employees, electrical supervisor Eddie Belcher wrote to his local paper in frustration at Mr Beazley’s move to appease the unions by abolishing AWAs.

Mr Belcher, who is employed under an AWA, is typical of the modern Australian employee. Australian workers embrace change more readily than their counterparts anywhere in the world.

Some companies’ willingness to embrace reform, like the introduction of AWAs, has helped create a strong foundation for continuing growth and prosperity.

But we cannot afford to stand still. More significantly, we cannot afford to turn back the clock on hard-won gains.

There is only one side of politics that stands for reform and has the courage to continue the reform process. Only the Liberal-National Coalition has the determination to continue pushing the economy forward.

The Australian Labor Party is not prepared to make the reforms needed to maintain the strength of the economy.

The warning for all those workers enjoying the benefits of AWAs, and for those people likely to sign an agreement before the next election, is clear: Mr Beazley is after your aspirational prosperity.

Underlying Mr Beazley’s AWA rollback promise is his other industrial relations agenda and that is to re-unionise the workplace. It amounts to compulsory unionism by stealth.

Mr Beazley is seeking to promote collective bargaining in workplaces where unions have no bargaining rights.

Under the Labor AWA rollback promise, unions will be permitted to inject themselves into the bargaining process and employers would be forced to bargain with a union to which none of the employees belong.

It would take Australia’s industrial relations system back at least 20 years.

Mr Beazley’s proposal — which borrows heavily from the playbook of the former Labor leader Mark Latham — has rightly alarmed the business community.

The Australian Mines and Metals Association has warned that Mr Beazley’s plan will rip $6.6 billion from the mining sector.

Businesses in other industries, including small and medium-sized companies will also suffer. Just ask the employees of Austal.