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

I thank the member for Barker for his question. I am delighted to inform him that these changes are benefiting the people of Barker, because in the June quarter the unemployment rate in Barker fell to 4.1 per cent. Indeed, I can advise the member for Barker and other honourable members that in March 1996 over 45 federal electorates in Australia had unemployment rates above 10 per cent. Almost one-third of the federal electorates in Australia in March 1996 had an unemployment rate above 10 per cent. The data for the electorates today show that there is no electorate in Australia today that has an unemployment rate above 10 per cent, and that is an example of the good reforms that have been put in place.

The electorate of Barker and all the other electorates around Australia are therefore benefiting from the strong economic management of this government. I am asked by the member for Barker about proposals to re-regulate, and every policy position that the ACTU imposes on this compliant Leader of the Opposition here is designed to do two things. They are designed, firstly, to restrict the ability of employers and employees to agree about the working arrangements that best suit their particular needs and conditions. And, secondly, they are designed to increase the unfettered powers of unions in Australian workplaces, even as union density in Australia continues to fall.

So we had the Secretary of the ACTU, Mr Combet, down at the Press Club this afternoon in what was generally a left-wing rant. He actually—

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