Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to enter into the debate on this matter of public importance. I have to say that the minister, in his reply to the MPI, outlined the case quite strongly, certainly in terms of the hypocrisy of the arguments that have been put by those on the other side and of the importance of having an adequate information campaign out there. The only reason we have this MPI today is that the government’s campaign to refute the misinformation, the lies, the distortion and the apprehension that has been created by the ACTU and the labour movement campaign is being effective. That is the only reason we are having this MPI: the Labor Party have come back after five or six weeks away and they have realised that the government’s campaign is biting through, that it is having an effect in countering the arguments of the union movement.

It is good to see that the member for Lalor is back in the chamber and raising the issues that are pertinent to her portfolio, but you would be hard pressed to know that she was out there during the six-week recess. She had been mothballed.

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