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

Oh, they do not like that. The Labor Party do not like actually being caught out. They are claiming that, somehow, this is a new allocation. It was in the papers released in December and tabled in this parliament in February—an allocation of $7.3 million for 2006-07. Why didn’t they ask the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations any questions about advertising this week? They asked the Special Minister of State and they asked the Prime Minister. But, even after being directed by the Special Minister of State to ask me about the budget, they did not ask because they knew that the document about the budget for the advertising was tabled in this place in February. Do you know what they said? Nothing.

Why did the Labor Party say nothing? Were they too sloppy to look through MYEFO? Was the shadow Treasurer not paying attention? Or could it have been political expediency by the Labor Party? They do not like the government explaining the laws as they stand to Australian workers. Do you know what the Labor Party want to do? The Labor Party want to define the law in their circumstances, inside their framework. They want to define ‘fairness’ and they want to define ‘safety net’. They want to define them so that they can get maximum political advantage for themselves and their union bosses. That is why the Labor Party do not want us to tell Australians what protections are in place for workers under the existing system. That is why they have a problem with it.

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