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

Sorry; the Deputy Leader of the Opposition said:

Laws have cut the take-home pay, conditions and job security of working Australians.

Example No. 4—the ACTU political manual says:

The resource boom has been driving our economy.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition says:

What’s driving economic growth in this country is the resources boom.

Example No. 5 is about the ABCC, the watchdog that has helped to deliver the lowest ever level of industrial disputation on construction sites. The ACTU manual says:

The ABCC is treating the union representatives as worse than terrorists.

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition says:

The ABCC is interrogating people as if they were terrorists.

This document and the words of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition have an uncanny similarity. It was Paul Keating, wasn’t it, who said that the Labor Party does not get out of bed unless a focus group tells them which side to get out of? This is the Labor Party way. The trade union movement’s manual says it all. Every word uttered by a whole lot of members—which we will remind members of over the next few weeks—comes out of this manual. Do you know what? When it comes down to it, the Leader of the Opposition is a patsy for the union bosses. He is wholly beholden to the union bosses. The union bosses are only interested in their power. They have no interest in the workers of Australia.

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