Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker. I saw the Treasurer laughing today. You might have observed it yourself, Mr Deputy Speaker—I know you are an observant man. You might have seen the Leader of the House seek to have the minister at the table sit down. After the performance today, he is no longer a person who can be taken seriously.

I turn to the other issue in question time today which once again demonstrates the days of drift and uncertainty for the Howard government—that is, the issue of industrial relations and particularly the issue of Tristar. There was the Prime Minister at the dispatch box today basically trying to pretend to the world—whilst he got angry and a little bit rattled—that everything was all right. Everything is not all right for those workers, who are sitting in an empty factory, not being able to get their redundancy entitlements.

We asked the Prime Minister today: what did you do about it before it was in the headlines in Sydney? What did you do about it before Alan Jones was on the case? What did you do about it when it was Labor raising it in the parliament and workers writing to you? The truth is that, before it was in the headlines, this government did nothing—absolutely nothing—and the Prime Minister today at the dispatch box could only refer to those things that have been done since it became a public issue.

Even then, at the dispatch box today, the Prime Minister continued the confusion. On the one hand, the Howard government say this conduct is not about Work Choices and it is not illegal. The Prime Minister said that. The minister said that to the Tristar workers. Then, as political cover, they instruct the Office of Workplace Services to investigate it. Well, they only get to investigate things if they are illegal—if they are breaches of laws or awards or agreements. How do these things add up? They are trying to put the political fix in, trying to look like they are responding.

On industrial relations, this is what we will see this year. We will see that if a worker can become a headline, a human headline, they will get some attention from the Howard government, because the Howard government is interested in addressing its political hurt, not the hurt of Australian working families. But we will not see any changes of substance to the industrial relations laws. The Howard government will not do that. When we come to the next election and we are talking about the issues for the next 10 years, one of the biggest of them will be how we ensure that working families in this country are treated decently when they are at work and that they are able to balance up the demands of work and family life, and it will only be Labor who has the answers on those questions. (Time expired)

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