Key crossbench senator David Leyonhjelm wants to ditch Fair Work laws, saying they're keeping hundreds of thousands of Australians out of work.
The Liberal Democrat said Australians should be allowed to work for less than the minimum wage and blamed the laws for unemployment.
"If an external force were threatening the survival of hundreds of thousands of Australians we would declare war on it," he told parliament on Wednesday as the Senate considered legislative changes.
"But in this instance, we are doing it do ourselves."
Senator Leyonhjelm said the Fair Work Act prevented employers from firing their employees if they don't show up for work, imposed a "bureaucratic maze" and acted as a disincentive to hire people.
People should be free to form a union even though it would be called collusion if undertaken by business, he said.
Anti-discrimination, workplace health and safety laws and competition and consumer laws were enough protection for workers.
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