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

We will investigate all allegations, including Cassie’s, under state labour laws, where the unfair dismissal laws would apply to the union movement. We are happy to investigate these matters, and we do it responsibly. When an allegation is made, about any individual, we will have the matter investigated. That is why we set up the Workplace Ombudsman.

The Labor Party do not have a policy on anything. They do not have a defence policy, a health policy, an education policy, a trade policy, a tax policy, a small business policy, a climate change policy or a finance policy. They do not have any policy, apart from their half-baked industrial relations policy framework, which says nothing about a workplace ombudsman. In fact, they say that they are going to abolish the Workplace Ombudsman. Where would Cassie go to get help then? Where would the children involved in these allegations go to get the matter thoroughly investigated? The Labor Party have a policy to abolish the Workplace Ombudsman. Do you know why? It is because they want to channel everyone through the union movement, so that the union bosses are the only arbiters of fairness in the workplace—the union bosses that represent only 15 per cent of the private sector workforce, the union bosses that are represented by the 70 per cent of the Labor Party frontbench who have come out of the union ranks.

The Labor Party are so hypocritical when it comes to these issues that they are prepared to stand up for the people in their own ranks who have potentially been breaking the law, yet they are prepared to go after other individuals in this forum and outside of the chamber.

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