Govt's IR ads are outrageous: Labor

The ads, which appeared nationally in the weekend newspapers, flag the government's "fairness test" that will ensure workers who earn less than $75,000 a year are fairly compensated if they trade away penalty rates.

Opposition treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said on Sunday the campaign had been funded by workers, forced to pay for Liberal Party propaganda.

"It's outrageous ... what John Howard is doing is putting his hand in the pockets of the workers that he is already ripping off through his industrial relations system and forcing them to pay for Liberal Party propaganda," Mr Swan told ABC television.

"He (Mr Howard) might as well take a big fire hose down to the treasury and suck the money out and give it to the advertising companies, it is outrageous and not justifiable at all."

Labor's new industrial relations policy, which includes abolishing Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), has been attacked by business leaders who claim it would cut jobs and slow business growth.

Mr Swan said AWAs should not define Labor's industrial relations package but Labor would continue discussions with business about the implementation process.

"Well, it (AWAs) shouldn't define the whole package," Mr Swan said.

"We're happy to talk to the mining industry and others about transition and implementation in that area and we will work at that over the next few weeks.

"It's important to actually resolve those transition and implementation issues.

"At the end of the day we won't agree on every aspect of our industrial relations system ... but we'll keep talking and we're certainly going to involve them (business) in a discussion about transition and implementation."