John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the introduction of Work Choices, and I am pleased to inform the House that since Work Choices was introduced over 263,000 new jobs have been created. It makes something of a mockery of remarks made by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition outside parliament today to the effect that there had not been jobs created as a result of Work Choices. Secondly, real wages—that is, the wages that you receive over and above inflation—have risen by 1.5 per cent, taking to 19.7 per cent the real wage rises that have occurred under this government, compared with the regression in real wages which occurred under the previous Labor government. The ABS has recorded industrial disputes at the lowest level ever recorded, indeed, since statistics began to be collected in 1913.

In the face of all of this, the trade union movement of Australia is, not unnaturally, waging a ferocious campaign. It is spending an estimated $30 million on this campaign, no doubt encouraged by the 70 per cent of the opposition frontbench who are former trade union officials and no doubt encouraged by the member for Batman, the member for Hotham and the member for Throsby. They are shortly to be joined by the National Secretary of the AWU and in the Senate by Senator Doug Cameron—and so the list goes on. The member for Charlton made it clear on radio this morning that if Mr Combet replaced her then that would be another illustration of independent voices in the federal parliamentary Labor caucus disappearing.

The union movement are angry about Work Choices not because they care about the working conditions of men and women in this country. The union bosses are worried about Work Choices because they want to re-establish union power over Australia’s industrial relations system. Let me quote again, as I did last week, from an article written by Paul Kelly in the Australian, which was otherwise praiseworthy of the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Kelly had this to say:

Rudd is embarked on one of the most audacious political scams in Australian history: seeking to resurrect trade union power and privileges by abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements, restoring union access to workplaces, saving the award system and entrenching collective union power in the name of work-life balance and family values.

The union movement are against Work Choices because they want to reclaim their control of the industrial relations system in this country. It has nothing to do with the rights and the interests of working people in this country. Working families in Australia have never been better off. We have a 30-year low in unemployment. We have had a massive rise in real wages. We have had historically low industrial disputes. In other words, the individual worker is doing well under this government. What is not doing well under this government is the collective called union bosses, and that is why the union movement are hurling a $30 million campaign against the federal coalition government.

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