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

It was a very good and compelling argument in support of the government’s workplace relations reforms. I was convinced, having read that article. The Australian people are convinced as well. Sometimes when you are in government, if you want to keep the economy strong, you have to make some tough decisions. This government has not been afraid to make tough decisions to keep Australia competitive. In order to guarantee not just the jobs of today but the jobs of tomorrow, you sometimes have to make tough decisions such as getting the budget into surplus, which the Labor Party opposed; introducing taxation reform, which the Labor Party opposed; paying off government debt, which the Labor Party opposed; reform of the waterfront, which the Labor Party opposed; Welfare to Work, which the Labor Party also opposed; and, of course, industrial relations and workplace relations change, which the Labor Party opposed.

After nearly 12 months, we are starting to see some figures that indicate that our reforms are delivering real benefits. Only last week, it became clear that since the reforms started 263,000 new jobs have been created in Australia. Interestingly, nearly 90 per cent of those jobs are full-time jobs. I well remember the former Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and a range of union leaders predicting Armageddon. They said the world would end with these laws; there would be mass sackings; children would go to school without shoes; and a range of other things. Wages are up by 1.5 per cent since the introduction of our laws.

I was asked whether there are any proposals that could jeopardise this contribution. I noted on the Sunday program the Deputy Leader of the Opposition saying that the Labor Party would avoid the flow-on impact of high wages in the mining industry by supporting collective agreements. I thought to myself, ‘That’s at odds with the Labor Party draft policy that says they want to introduce pattern bargaining.’ On one hand, on one side of the street, the Labor Party want to introduce pattern bargaining. They released their draft policy on a Friday night.

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