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

Every time the Deputy Leader of the Opposition gets up and talks about ripping up Work Choices, the people and the workers of Australia want to know what the alternative is. You do not have to dig too deep. It is everything that Greg Combet, Bill Ludwig and John Robertson have been saying for the last few weeks. They said: ‘We’re not for turning; we’re going to reintroduce the unfair dismissal laws’—the same unfair dismissal laws that have been such a burden to small business; the same unfair dismissal laws that, according to the OECD, have been one of the greatest barriers to women, young people and those susceptible to long-term unemployment entering the workforce. Yet the Labor Party want to reintroduce those laws—and why? Because the trade union movement are telling them to.

You know what, Mr Deputy Speaker? This is the irony of it. On the one hand, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is trying to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of business and con them—they are very smart but she is trying to con them—into the belief that somehow she is going to water down these laws. We know that is not right. We know that it is a matter of principle for the Labor Party and the unions that unfair dismissal laws should cover everyone. In fact, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has voted 44 times with that principle in her back pocket. Somehow we are meant to believe that that principle flew out the door in February 2007. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party will be caught out if they try and walk both sides of the street.

We recognise that the workplace has changed. We recognise that individuals really do want to negotiate with their bosses and to have a flexible workplace arrangement that can accommodate home based business and that allows people to work the hours that suit them. And do you know what? The best environment for that will be 4.5 per cent unemployment and record levels of workforce participation, particularly of women.

Somehow the Deputy Leader of the Opposition believes that jobs are created by government legislation. I say to her: say that to the one million Australians who were unemployed in the 1990s. All the legislation in the world under Labor could not protect their jobs. The Labor Party wants to reintroduce a no disadvantage test. That subjective test did not work. The proof that the subjective no disadvantage test did not work was one million Australians unemployed in the 1990s. Go and tell them that there will be a government introduced test that is somehow going to protect their jobs. The opposition believe that it is an absolutely inflexible notion that government regulation creates jobs and that government regulation protects jobs; it does not. The only guarantee of a job is a customer walking in the door, and no amount of regulation is ever going to be a substitute for that. You have to do hard yards.

I would never suggest that workplace relations laws are in any way the sole pillar upon which you build a strong economy. You build a strong economy because you make hard decisions. You introduce taxation reform and fiscal reform that get the budget into surplus. You introduce reforms that get rid of $96 billion of government debt and set up future funds to inoculate us against some of the vagaries of the marketplace over the next few years. You introduce education reforms. We have doubled our education commitment over the last 10 years. You introduce reforms that give women choice—and this is very important—such as family tax benefits, the baby bonus, the tax deductibility of child care and the childcare benefit. All those initiatives help to give women choice so that they can re-enter the workplace, especially after they have enjoyed a higher education. You introduce reforms in workplace relations that get rid of the state systems, such as awards in New South Wales that refuse to allow school based apprentices. You introduce a flexible system; you give workers choice. The greatest moment of choice for workers is when you have an unemployment rate of 4.5 per cent, higher levels of participation and real wages increasing. That is the very best environment you can have in order to create jobs. Business have the courage to create jobs because they know they are not going to be held to ransom by the Labor Party’s unfair dismissal laws and because they can see in the distance that the economy can remain strong, that the interest rate environment is manageable and that inflation is manageable.

It is not Joe Hockey saying it; it is the Reserve Bank, the OECD and the International Monetary Fund. Even the editorial in the Australian a few days ago said—

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