Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

I will come back to the motion. It is important that this piece of legislation be passed. In her remarks the Deputy Leader of the Opposition ranged over a broad number of areas—including how, allegedly, the industrial relations legislation is hurting families—not directly to the point of the motion before the chair. It is important that this piece of legislation be passed because we have heard from the opposition that they now support the introduction of a fairness test. As they now actually support the introduction of a fairness test, we say: let’s get on with this; let’s bring it on; let’s have the vote that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is talking about. But all of a sudden they say, ‘No, we should not have it today.’ On the one hand, there is this totally confused position from the opposition—it is just like their industrial relations policy, all over the shop and a total shambles—and, on the other, they say, ‘We support a fairness test; we think it ought to have been there.’ But then, when we come in here to debate the matter and pass it, they say, ‘We’re not prepared to get on with it today.’ Once again, it is a total shambles. It is a shambles not only in terms of policy but in terms of their own approach to this piece of legislation.

What the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said, she would say—one would expect that. Of course oppositions say those sorts of things. But the embarrassing fact this week is that the whole approach of the opposition, including their approach to the motion before the chair, reveals what a shambles the opposition’s policy is in relation to industrial relations, Work Choices, the Workplace Relations Act and those things that we put in place that have led to a major improvement in the number of jobs, rising real wages and the lowest levels of industrial disputation ever. That is why this legislation ought to be passed today. It ought to be passed today because what it reveals is an unintended consequence of the Work Choices legislation, which we are moving to fix. It is bizarre, to say the least, that the opposition, having said now that they are going to support this, do not want immediately to move to fix it. It just shows, once again, what a shambles the opposition are.

Question put:

That the motion be agreed to.

See this speech in context