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

In reply to the member for Perth, if the remarks attributed to that person are accurate, let me say through him to that person that I think he is wrong, just as the member for Perth was wrong 10 years ago when he said the world would come to an end with our industrial relations reform and just as the then member for Canberra spoke on behalf of the Labor Party when that legislation came back in its amended form from the Senate in November 1996 and he posed three questions. Will unemployment fall? Answer: yes. Will the nation be more productive? Yes. Will industrial disputes go up or go down? In fact, they have gone down. Indeed, the latest figures show that for the March quarter of 2006 we have recorded fewer industrial disputes than in any quarter since we began to collect these statistics. That is a pretty interesting figure. If there is one thing about the Labor Party that I remember from the dim, distant past when they occasionally talked sense on these issues, it is that they said, ‘If you want to reduce industrial disputes, elect a Labor government.’ The truth is that unemployment has gone down, wages have gone up, prosperity and productivity have increased and industrial disputes have fallen.

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