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

I thank the member for Fisher for his question. I note that by the end of the year nearly two million Australian workers will have willingly signed agreements under the new workplace relations regime and nearly one million workers will be on Australian workplace agreements. These laws were introduced because it is important for the Australian economy to remain competitive with the rest of the world. Economic reform does help to deliver a stronger economy.

Of course, the Labor Party and the union bosses were predicting Armageddon when these laws were to start, nearly a year ago. We remember the former Leader of the Opposition saying that there would be more divorce when these laws came into effect. I can reassure him that there is not more divorce in Australia. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition said that these laws would be bad for the economy. I can reassure the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that the economy has continued to have reasonably strong economic growth over the last 12 months.

Sharan Burrow said, ‘Children won’t see their parents at Christmas.’ I can reassure Sharan Burrow that parents did see their children and children saw their parents—and saw Santa Claus as well—at Christmas. Bill Ludwig from the AWU said, ‘Our children will be going to school with bare feet because parents can’t afford shoes.’ I can assure Mr Ludwig that our children are going to school with shoes. Mr Speaker, it went on and on. There was none better than Bill Shorten, who said it would be ‘a green light for mass sackings’.

Bill Shorten is coming into this place to unfairly dismiss the member for Maribyrnong. And now we have Greg Combet, part of the Rudd-Gillard-Combet combo. Greg Combet wants to replace the poor old member for Charlton. Leave her alone! The member for Charlton worried about our unfair dismissal laws. The member for Charlton votes against our laws and then seeks to rely on them, because the Labor Party is the party for union bosses; it is not the party for workers. Seventy per cent of its frontbench are ex union officials, former ACTU heads like the member for Batman; the member for Hotham, right next to him; and the member for Throsby, who is here. And now we have Greg Combet wanting to come in, and Dougie Cameron up in the Senate—have I missed any?

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