Prime Minister Tony Abbott has dismissed a new compact on industrial relations as being "very 1980s", saying he instead backed partnerships between workers and managers.
Union heavyweight Paul Howes ignited a debate on Australia's industrial relations landscape when he called for a truce between unions and business, and for an end to the "blood sport" between the parties.
But Mr Abbott has made it clear he's not enthusiastic about Howes' call for a "grand compact" in the workplace, comparing it to the Accord of the Hawke-Keating years.
Management and workers needed to be fully engaged with each other for businesses to succeed, he said.
"Whether we need to have some kind of compact with big government, big business and big unions, I'm not so sure about that," he told Fairfax Radio.
"That was very 1980s, all of that."
Labor leader Bill Shorten said he wouldn't engage in the "fantasy" of a new compact on workplace relations while Mr Abbott was in power.
"Do you seriously believe that Tony Abbott is interested in working with trade unions?" he said on ABC radio.
"I'm just not going to engage in some fantasy that Tony Abbott is going to change his spots."
Mr Abbott seized on the differences between Mr Howes and the opposition leader.
"I certainly think he's pulled the rug out from underneath Bill Shorten's scare campaign," the prime minister said.
Mr Howes acknowledged he may upset people on his own side by calling for a new compact. He also said he believes Mr Abbott can be pragmatic on IR policy.
"I don't think Tony Abbott is actually the ideologue that he sometimes paints himself to be."
Mr Abbott also played down suggestions a royal commission into the union movement would soon be announced.
Prior to the election the coalition promised a judicial inquiry into an AWU slush fund linked to former prime minister Julia Gillard.
But the recent revelations of corruption within the construction industry led to talk of a broader inquiry, with a royal commission one option raised by the prime minister.
"We committed to a judicial inquiry into union slush funds, that's what you'll see," Mr Abbott said.
"Whether it should have a broader remit, well, that's something obviously we're looking at."
