Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Hasluck for his question. I can tell him that reforming industrial relations is one of the reasons unemployment is now at a 30-year low in Australia at 4.6 per cent. The ACTU had its big demonstrations against Work Choices today. According to Sharan Burrow, there were 60,000 at the MCG. According to Billy Shorten, there were slightly above 50,000 at the MCG. According to the ABC, there were 40,000 at the MCG. The member for Lilley went on Charles Wooley’s program and claimed: ‘There aren’t many occasions in Australian history where a political meeting has 70,000, 80,000 or 90,000 people as they had in Melbourne.’

The lesson to draw from that is: never trust an estimation of the numbers from the member for Lilley. That is my advice to the Leader of the Opposition: never trust an estimation of numbers from the member for Lilley. I have been to a few grand finals in my time at the MCG. Let me tell you, this was no Essendon-Collingwood match. This was no Anzac Day crowd; this was a VFA turnout. The excuses are now coming: ‘The trains were off, so we couldn’t get a train’ or, as Greg Combet said, people were afraid of repercussions. Let me tell you, lots of people had lots of reasons not to be there. Former ACTU president Bob Hawke was not there. That is because he is in France hunting French deer with the hounds. According to Country Life magazine:

At this year’s meet in the oak forests of Champlevois in the Loire,  the crossroads were named after Mr Hawke and he made an acceptance speech surrounded by the hounds.

It is a great country, this! You can start off as a working-class hero and finish your days hunting with the hounds in the Loire Valley, as many of those at the MCG did.

Here is the figure to get in your minds: since Work Choices came into effect, 165,000 new jobs have been created in Australia. Get this figure in your mind: since Work Choices came into effect, four times the crowd at the MCG has been created in new jobs. That is 165,000 new jobs. Four times the number that rolled out at the MCG today have found work with new jobs as a consequence of Work Choices. The truth of the matter is that today was a political stunt. It flopped. Today will not interrupt the creation of new jobs. Today we continue with economic reform in Australia.

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