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

And I am very proud of that. I also take this opportunity of telling them in relation to redundancy that the government recently announced that it would increase the basic entitlement that would be paid under GEERS where there was a default by the employing company to the community standard of 16 weeks, which was adjudged by the Industrial Relations Commission.

So, whilst those who sit opposite may seek to contrast their position from ours, I remind not only the ladies and gentlemen in the gallery but the Australian people that, when the Labor Party were in office for 13 years, they did not bother to introduce a scheme of this kind. They were prepared to let people lose their redundancies and other things when companies went broke. I am very proud of the fact that we have moved in relation to that.

But in relation to the particular question asked by the Leader of the Opposition, I will refer to the question asked by the member for Grayndler. If there is any further information that I can make available, particularly to the people in the gallery, I will be happy to do so.

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