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

Mr Speaker, I table that letter from Blake Dawson Waldron. Beyond this, we have the hypocrisy of the ACTU—Mr Combet in particular and the member for Perth and others from the Labor Party—on the matter of penalty rates, because the member for Perth was saying, ‘Isn’t this a disaster that there is some trading of penalty rates going on in relation to this particular matter.’ Trading of penalty rates is hardly new. Indeed, let me read you a quote:

Who do you think might have said that? Who was it that negotiated these changes in penalty rates? None other than the Secretary of the ACTU, Mr Greg Combet himself. So Mr Combet is on record as saying he has been personally involved in the negotiation in relation to penalty rates, and yet the member for Perth comes in here yesterday and says, ‘Isn’t this a disaster that there was a negotiation of penalty rates.’ What is most bizarre about this particular case and this allegation is that the Australian Labor Party, once the party of workers in Australia, is actually standing in the way of employees at this particular business achieving a 12 to 13 per cent increase in their wages.

So we have got to the bizarre situation in the ACTU campaign that the ACTU and the Australian Labor Party, if they had their way, would actually deny workers a 12 to 13 per cent increase in their wages. Why is it that the Leader of the Opposition is so opposed to Australian workplace agreements? Why is it that he wants to rip them up when they can lead to desirable outcomes for workers, such as a 12 or 13 per cent increase in their wages? It can only be because of the vested interests of the union movement, who are ideologically opposed to Australian workplace agreements. I began this answer by recounting the fact that 159,000 jobs have been created in Australia in the last 138 days. There is no doubt about which parties represent the workers in this country.

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