Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, he is laughing now, but was he laughing on television when he was defending the privatisation of the Snowy Hydro and the Prime Minister had walked away from him? Was he laughing the day he was defending the state of the Medibank Private privatisation and the Prime Minister had walked away from him? The one consistent feature of this minister across all portfolios is he is always the last man to know, and he was the last man to know on this occasion as well.

Let’s get the time line in our minds, because it is important. Work Choices came into operation last year, last March. The government spent $55 million on advertising, advertising the brand ‘Work Choices’ and the concept that various award conditions were ‘protected by law’. Then of course the data leaked out that for hundreds of thousands of Australians those award conditions were being stripped away. The government did not care about that. When those examples leaked out, they stood in this parliament and they defended it, time after time. Spotlight, Darrell Lea—you name it, they defended it. They said it was okay. Indeed, they said the strength of the Australian economy relied on that aspect of Work Choices.

Nothing has changed about this government’s view. What has changed is its polling. And of course we know it got polling on 24 April. We do not know the contents of that polling, but we know it got it. Then on 4 May it announces a policy shift so vague that there is no written legislation. Then on 5 and 6 May we get the ads in the newspapers. Then we get workers at a helpline directed not to say ‘Work Choices’. Obviously the polling has come in: ‘Cobble together some change, get some ads up, stop people saying “Work Choices”.’ And now of course we stand here in this parliament with legislation for the very thing being advertised not even in this place.

The Prime Minister is a clever politician, but he is also a man who has changed over the life of the Howard government. Australians are entitled to conclude the best days of the Howard government are well and truly behind it. It is out of touch with working Australian families and their needs, and it still believes in extreme and unfair laws which are operating on Australian working families today.

The minister today had the gall to say that the government got it wrong in the past, and he blamed his predecessor—the last refuge of the cowardly. He said the government had it wrong in the past and blamed his predecessor. What we know is the government still believes in these extreme laws, and no mealy-mouthed carry-on from this minister and no amount of advertising is going to convince Australians otherwise. Interestingly, whilst he will not say ‘Work Choices’, now he goes to press conferences and chants: ‘Your rights at work.’ Let’s see if he will do that now. (Time expired)

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