Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to speak on the one-year anniversary of the introduction of Work Choices. We are told that this has been so good for workers, they have just been so much better off and it is the best thing that has ever happened to them. Wouldn’t you think we would have had a cake? Wouldn’t you think we would have had a celebration given that this is so good for workers?

The government will not let the truth come out. They have stopped the Office of the Employment Advocate from collecting the statistics that show that workers are worse off. There is a Treasury paper that indicates the future directions and new changes that they will put in for Work Choices legislation. What did they do? They have blacked it out. The news is so good for the workers—they are so much better off and they have never had it so good—but we cannot tell them what we are going to do in the future. We have blacked it out. I have never seen a good news story that is so heavily censored.

The big point I want to make is about Spotlight employees. I raised this in the parliament and the Prime Minister said, ‘Look, for these workers, it is a lot better going from unemployment to employment.’ I agree with him. He said, ‘These 38 workers are going to be $338 better off.’ What a lie! He knew at that time that they were not going into full-time employment. All they were being offered was casual employment, and part-time employment to boot. For getting rid of overtime, shift allowances and penalty rates, those 38 Mount Druitt employees got an extra 2c an hour. That is what stinks.

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