Alby Schultz (Hume, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

So I can understand why the Australian people will continue to reject the Australian Labor Party for what it is. They know that Work Choices offers more employers and employees the opportunity to make agreements that are relevant to the needs of their businesses rather than their being forced to work under the old one size fits all awards system. They also know that our living standards will rely on the productivity of our workplaces. Work Choices will allow Australians to continue enjoying real wage increases, will boost productivity and will provide the flexibility necessary to allow Australian employers and employees the choice to work out what they want.

Nobody knows that more than I do, with my experiences in the Australian meat industry. I spent 32 years not only as a slaughterman and a labourer but as a manager, and I saw both sides of the equation there. I spent more time out of work on industrial strikes that should never have occurred than I did at the workplace. One of the reasons I opted out of the trade union movement and went and applied for a management job, was so that I could support my wife and young children. We were in a situation in those days where workplace agreements were being ignored and pushed away by the Australian Labor Party through its trade union movement, even to the point where we were physically threatened by the trade union movement when we tried to negotiate agreements with our employers on the day.

So don’t any of you guys over there, who have absolutely no idea what it is like to work for a living, stand in this chamber and preach to the working class representatives of the people over here in the Liberal-National Party coalition government, because we know more about what hard work is all about than you could ever dream of. You have listened to what your trade union mates tell you about what work is about; you have never experienced it. (Time expired)

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