John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, he tried to nationalise the banks. One of the things that Chifley made after the end of the Second World War was a full employment pledge to the workers of Australia. He believed in the social justice of full employment. It strikes me as passing strange that a party, one of whose former prime ministers, Ben Chifley, believed in full employment, is the party that has an industrial relations policy that is going to destroy the potential of this country to be a nation of full employment over the next three years.

One of the great advantages of our policy has been to drive down unemployment. One of the consequences of the policy of the Leader of the Opposition would be that unemployment, so far from remaining at a 33-year low, will rise, because if you bring back the unfair dismissal laws you will rob small business of the incentive to take on more staff. That will have a deleterious effect on unemployment. Far from full employment being a social justice goal of the Australian Labor Party, it will be something that only a coalition government can deliver.

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