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

of individual cases such as that. Thousands of people leave employment and gain employment all over Australia every week. But I am aware, and the Leader of the Opposition should be aware, of an article in the Australian Financial Review this morning written by an academic by the name of Don Harding that makes the point that, on a preliminary examination of the early figures on the behaviour of the workforce since the introduction of the new industrial relations legislation, there is absolutely no evidence of the mass sackings of which the Labor Party is so ready to speak. Indeed, the preliminary indications are that the employment outlook has actually got better since the Work Choices legislation was introduced. I know that will be intensely disappointing to the Leader of the Opposition, because he has been hoping and praying for a deterioration in the figures. He always wants bad economic news in the hope that he can use it in propaganda against this government.

I do not know the circumstances of that individual. In the question of a similar kind that he asked me yesterday, he did not disclose to the House the fact that the lady to whom he referred was entitled to bring a claim for unlawful dismissal. I invite the Leader of the Opposition to get up in this House and deny any knowledge that she was bringing a claim for unlawful dismissal, because the source of the information that came to me was a union. I find it hard to believe that, if I can find out from the union, the Leader of the Opposition, who does everything they want, could not also find out from the union.

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