Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

At that time the Deputy Leader of the Opposition stood on principle opposing those laws. She said our removal of the unfair dismissal laws was:

… a further assault on the working conditions of the industrially weak.

She went on to say:

It is fundamentally bad public policy, short-sighted and ridiculous …

There she was, taking a principled stand opposing the laws, and so it was a bit surprising for all of us on Sunday when she said that she was going to speak to small business about possible exceptions. The trade union movement, as they do, came out today pointing out that it is a matter of principle for them. The ACTU’s Greg Combet—always good for a quote—declared that the issue remained ‘a statement of principle and belief’. He said, ‘We believe there shouldn’t be any exceptions.’ The AWU’s Bill Ludwig—not a bad guy sometimes and a good judge of character at times—said that you either have those unfair dismissal laws or you do not. And we cannot forget Unions New South Wales’s John Robertson who said that there should not be exceptions.

The Labor Party is trying to walk on both sides of the street. On the one hand the trade union movement is saying that there are no exceptions, that it is a matter of principle and that unfair dismissal laws should apply to every businessman no matter what. That is the policy of the Labor Party, because that is how they have voted on 44 occasions in this place. On the other side of the road we have the Deputy Leader of the Opposition trying to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of small business. Small business is onto you. Small business is smarter than that. Small business knows that getting rid of the unfair dismissal laws has helped to create jobs. The coalition believes in creating jobs and the Labor Party believes in destroying jobs.

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