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

Because our policies have delivered higher real wages, more jobs and the lowest level of unemployment in 33 years. We wanted to remove the unfair dismissal laws from small business on 44 separate occasions and the Labor Party voted against it on each occasion. They would have you believe that suddenly they are converted and care about small business. We wanted to remove the unfair dismissal law from small business because, although we have always been concerned about people losing their jobs, we are more concerned about people getting jobs in the first place. The unfair dismissal law was one of the single greatest impediments to small business employing people, particularly those people who were long-term unemployed. It was the OECD, and not some paid-up union hack writing an academic report for the Labor Party, that said that the people who are most vulnerable in the community are the greatest beneficiaries of the removal of the unfair dismissal law from small business. That is because small business is now prepared to take a punt and employ someone with a chequered employment history or someone who has been out of work for a long period of time. AWAs have been around since 1996 and there has been no secret about the government’s commitment to creating a flexible workplace environment that increases productivity and creates more jobs that deliver higher real wages.

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