Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canning for his question. As the Treasurer was pointing out to the House, a series of world economic bodies, including the IMF, have confirmed the workplace relations reforms as being part of the strength of the Australian economy over the past decade or so. Indeed, I noted that the managing director of the IMF, while in Australia this week, said something which the government knows and which the Leader of the Opposition is trying to ignore—that is, countries cannot prosper into the 21st century with workplace laws from the seventies, eighties and nineties. But that is where the Australian Labor Party wants to take Australia: back to the Keating era reforms.

I was asked about proposals to roll back these reforms. It is interesting that, over the last few months—indeed, over the last year or so—the member for Perth has been running around the country privately intimating to business organisations—

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