Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue of fairness in the workplace in this matter of public importance today because, to me, it is the peak of hypocrisy that the ALP should claim that this government has failed to protect fairness in the workplace. It is certainly the peak of hypocrisy for the ALP to believe that if they somehow dance to the tune of a union thug, or they dance to the tune of the ACTU, they will miraculously create fairness in the workplace. Since coming to this place I have been focused on creating opportunities for my region and the people who live within it. The figures show that we have succeeded in creating eight consecutive quarters of falling unemployment. What is unfair about that? What is unfair about eight consecutive quarters of falling unemployment?

In my electorate under Labor unemployment in 1994 hovered around 20 per cent. Who was protecting fairness then? The member for Cunningham talked about the reality for young people. I can tell you that in 1994 the reality for young people was sitting in the gutter with no opportunity. You would walk down the street and you would see young people in despair, young people with no hope of a job and young people with no idea about the possibility of a career. There was no protection by the Australian Labor Party and their industrial relations regime for those young people who felt abandoned by the Keating government and by the system.

I am pleased to say that those sorts of situations are being reversed. In my electorate today there is a much brighter outlook for our young people, and it is brighter because this government has put the settings in place that make it possible for employers to employ young people and older workers. It is encouraging employment, and that is what we are about—encouraging opportunity.

When you look back to 1994 and the 90s there were a million people unemployed nationally and 20 per cent unemployment on the coast. Does the Australian Labor Party think it is fair that the unemployment rate was 20.3 per cent in Bellingen, 19.8 per cent in Kempsey, 18.7 per cent in Coffs Harbour or 17.2 per cent in Maclean? That is the way it was in 1994. That is the way it was under the Australian Labor Party’s industrial relations regime. How did that protect workers? How did that engender fairness? Apparently, according to the Labor Party, this government is being unfair by reducing unemployment in Grafton, for example, to 6.7 per cent, or in Coffs Harbour to 7.7 per cent. If we look back to 1994 we had 18.7 per cent; now it is 7.7 per cent, and we still have more work to do. We still want to create more opportunities. We still want to get more people into work. When this government came to power there were only 710 apprentices in the entire electorate, and probably most of them were working for mum and dad. Now there are 2,200 apprentices—a 300 per cent increase. Apparently that is unfair. It is unfair, apparently, to triple the number of apprentices. Labor claimed these industrial relations changes would cause mass sackings. We know what the truth is. Like the truth in the government ads, this government has created mass hirings by its industrial relations changes—mass hirings nationally and mass hirings across the region which I represent. The removal of those job-destroying unfair dismissal laws has given small business the confidence to employ, to create jobs and to create opportunities.

More flexible AWAs mean that it is possible for firms to provide better services to the people that they serve and, therefore, create more jobs. Let us look at wages. Wages have gone up under this government by about 20.8 per cent in real terms, yet they fell by 1.8 per cent in real terms under Labor. Falling wages under Labor is apparently fair. Over 13 years of Labor, to reduce wages by 1.8 per cent in real terms is somehow fair. This is the peak of hypocrisy.

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