John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I will actually think of England. I will think of what the Prime Minister of Great Britain said: ‘Fairness in the workplace starts with the chance of a job.’ I will think of England, but I think more of Australia. I think more of the workers of Australia, and I care about them a lot more than those in the Australian Labor Party. That is why my proudest boast in the last election campaign, when I spoke to the men and women of Western Sydney, was that we had delivered higher wages, lower taxes, lower unemployment and vastly lower interest rates.

There is nothing more absurd in the attack mounted by the Leader of the Opposition on the government’s industrial relations policy than to say that our aim is to cut the wages of Australian workers. That is absurd because it defies history.

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