Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am sure that, unfortunately, as a result of this legislation we will hear stories about the effects on workers suffering in those great communities of Devonport and Burnie in Tasmania. What will the member for Braddon do? The member for Braddon voted for the legislation. He likes to pretend to be a friend to workers down in Tasmania, but he came to Canberra and voted for this legislation. Like many government members, he pretends to be a friend to workers, but when he comes to Canberra he votes against their interests. We will be informing all the constituents in the seat of the member for Braddon about the manner in which their member has represented their interests, as we will of course with all of the members of government held seats. Their constituents deserve to know what their representatives are doing in Canberra and they deserve to know about the effects of this legislation. Of course, we do not need to tell many of them about that because they are already experiencing these adverse effects.

This task force set up by the federal parliamentary Labor Party will continue its work until election day in order to expose the way in which this legislation imposes itself upon good employers so that they do bad things, as well as imposing itself upon working people. This legislation allows bad employers to do bad things and forces good employers to do the same. This legislation is coercive by nature. It legitimises the bad behaviour of some employers and forces decent employers—good corporate citizens—to consider doing the same just to stay in competition. That is an outrageous regime to set up in this country—a commercial arrangement whereby companies have to consider cutting the conditions of their own staff in order to compete with the worst elements of the employers in this country. What a regime to set up! What have the workers of this country done to this government? They have been the backbone of this nation’s economic performance for 20 years and, for their efforts, they are being treated in an outrageously bad way. We will continue to expose that across the country in as many government seats as possible. (Time expired)

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