Australia's flexible labour market

Ross Gittins explains why Australia needs, and has, a "flexible labour market":

IF YOU listen to business, we still have big problems with the labour market. John Howard deregulated it, but then Julia Gillard reregulated it, and now we can't do a thing with it.

The business people are right to this extent: with an economy under so many pressures for change - the rise of the emerging market economies and the resources boom it has produced, the digital revolution, the return of the prudent consumer, and more - we do need a labour market that's ''flexible''.

But what exactly does flexibility mean? Well, not what some bad employers think: unilateral freedom to change their staff's working arrangements without recompense or consultation. That's one-sided flexibility.

No, what flexibility should mean is the ability of the labour market to adjust to shocks that hit the economy without generating excessive inflation or unemployment. There is some, but it doesn't linger for years. Another word for it is ''resilience'', the ability to take a punch, then bounce back. So how are we doing there? A lot better than business would have you believe.