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

I note today the decision by the Leader of the Opposition to stage a bit of a stunt at the national conference. ‘Rudd set for brawl with Left’. This happens regularly, doesn’t it? Am I missing something? This happens regularly. It is like that great scene out of Casablanca, where Captain Renault said at the end, ‘Roll up the usual suspects.’ Well, at every national conference the leader of the Labor Party rolls up the left—rolls over the top of them at a pretend, staged event—and says, ‘We’re strong, and we’re going to stand up to the union bosses.’ How extraordinary it is that the Labor Party has always been opposed to casualisation of the workforce and, at a time when we are moving people from casual labour into permanent part-time or full-time work, the Labor Party wants to wind back to the casualisation of the workforce. The Financial Review said today:

Given the concern expressed by the labour movement over the past two decades about “casualisation” of the workplace, you would think the unions and the Labor Party would be celebrating the record level of full-time jobs being created. Not a bit of it. Unions are running a desperate campaign of misinformation to shore up their power, and Labor is in lock-step,

Absolutely. The Labor Party is about the union bosses—the union bosses outside and the union bosses within the parliament. Only today I heard the Prime Minister on Radio National. Who did the Labor Party put up to be the spokesman on industrial relations for the Labor Party? It was not the Leader of the Opposition or the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Greg Combet was there to debate the Prime Minister on industrial relations. I then went onto Jon Faine’s program, in Melbourne. I was being interviewed and they said, ‘We have a spokesman for the other side.’ I asked: ‘Who’s that? Julia Gillard? Kevin Rudd?’ The answer was, ‘No, Greg Combet is the spokesman.’

So the Rudd-Gillard-Combet combo comes into play, which says that the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition do not control their own policy—Greg Combet does. That is why he wants to knock off the poor old member for Charlton. Stay here, don’t leave your seat! Greg Combet wants to knock off the member for Charlton. A union boss knocks off the poor old member for Corio. A union boss knocks off the poor old member for Maribyrnong. You have the union boss in Hotham, You have the union boss in Batman. Do not forget the union boss in Throsby; we cannot forget her! Dougie Cameron and all of them are coming in because they want to get rid of the monkeys. Just bring the organ grinder in. He is out there playing the tune on radio. He is debating us on industrial relations. Forget the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. Just bring the organ grinder in.

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