ANALYSIS

If ever there was a case for Tony Abbott to get his industrial relations policy out sooner rather than later, Dave Oliver has made it.

ACTU secretary Oliver went to Canberra on Wednesday to fire a barrage of shots against the Opposition Leader and, by the way, to lodge an ambit claim with the Gillard government.

The unions want the government to further enshrine penalty rates with legislation and to have a national scheme for portable entitlements.

Both proposals infuriate employers; they were also brushed off by a spokesman for Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten who said: ''The government believes that penalty rates and other worker entitlements are adequately protected through the existing Fair Work regime.''