Business should have fought Labor's changes from the start I agree that we need profound workplace reform much sooner than Tony Abbott dared to promise, but I have little sympathy for business representatives who are lions now but were lambs when the Rudd Government imposed its restrictive Fair Work Act: Speaking at a lunch in Melbourne, Lend Lease chairman David Crawford and Asciano chairman Malcolm Broomhead seized on Mr Abbott's inaction on workplace issues. Mr Broomhead said it was ""absolute madness"" to defer reforms until 2016 at the earliest. The 2016 date was nominated by Mr Abbott in August, when he launched a set of pre-election workplace policies that left the Labor Party's Fair Work Act largely unchanged. Abbott did not dare promise more for fear of Labor and the unions whipping up a fear campaign that could have cost him the election. Business, meanwhile, had largely left the fight on workplace reforms to the Liberals until Labor started to look safely terminal. True, Broomhead has raised objections to the Fair Work Act for some time now, but business as a whole has failed to fight as it should: In 2004, [Heather Ridout] was appointed ... CEO [of the Australian Industry Group]. As the Howard era drew to a close, she faced one the biggest decisions of her career: whether or not to join a business funded pro-Work Choices advertising campaign. She chose not to â a call that worked wonders for her reputation with the ALP. When the chains were being put on by the first Rudd Government, then rampant, large parts of business almost welcomed them: On the day of releasing the Fair Work Bill, Anderson's ACCI and Heather Ridout's Australian Industry Group (the nation's two largest employer groups) even praised the changes as a workable compromise... Anderson initially listed some concerns and stressed Labor would "put more power in the hands of union officials." But he was a convert to the process and said he recognised the reality that Labor had received endorsement at the election for most of its changes. Ridout, meanwhile, congratulated Gillard "on a very good process" and said the Fair Work Bill was "by and large" workable. It's a bit rich for business now to insist Abbott break the election promises he made.