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

Imagine the outcry if I sent a letter to schools in New South Wales to be distributed to school students in which it outlined all the lies which Unions NSW had been uttering about Work Choices. There would be complete outrage from the other side in this place if that were to happen. The New South Wales Minister for Education and Training, Carmel Tebbutt, may not know what Australia Day is, but can I say to her that this sort of activity is inappropriate on any day in schools in New South Wales. It is totally inappropriate.

Tomorrow, teachers across Australia will in some cases close schools down so that they can attend, during a school day, rallies in relation to the anti-Work-Choices campaign by the unions in this country. I say: if the teachers and the union in Australia believe that this campaign is so important, why don’t they do it on a day on which they do not have to close down schools in this country? The use of young students as a postal service to their parents is outrageous behaviour on the part of unions in New South Wales. They have been caught out once again peddling untruthful statements about Work Choices, and parents in New South Wales will once again be concerned about this radical influence in the New South Wales teachers union as such, to engage in outrageous behaviour such as this. I call upon the Leader of the Opposition. He should stand up here at this dispatch box and condemn this sort of behaviour on the part of unions in New South Wales and the teachers union in particular.

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