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

We will—when you finish with the pollsters, we will see them. But you do not want this parliament to see them before dealing with the legislation. That is too smart by half, Minister. If they are genuinely information fact sheets then why were they not provided with the legislation? The fact that you have left it, to enable you to draft them afterwards, is because you want them to be propaganda, and the three-month time frame is all about pushing propaganda into the hands of workers before the election.

But the real vice in these fact sheets—apart from them being more propaganda from the government—is that the government are going to fine employers for not doing it. If you run a small business today, unless you hand out the Howard government’s propaganda within the three-month time period, you will get a $110 penalty for every employee you fail to get it to. If you are running a small business—a cafe, a drycleaner—and you do not get out the sheets out to your employees in time, the Howard government will come and fine you. This is the Howard government attacking business, and small business in particular. This is regulation gone mad in the interests of political propaganda, and the Howard government did not want Labor members to have a vote on this in this parliament because they knew it was something to be ashamed of and they were hoping to cover it up. This is an absolutely ridiculous approach from the Howard government. We could have dealt with this amendment and had one division. Instead, we have had more because they want to cover up— (Time expired)

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