Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I will continue explaining the nature of flawed agreement making under Work Choices. For a collective agreement under Work Choices, the benchmark is the so-called ‘protected’ award conditions, which means that things can be lost without any proper compensation. I say to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that, if she is aware of anyone who has a complaint about a collective agreement-making process, they should refer that matter to the Workplace Ombudsman. But I also say to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that what they will find when they go to the Workplace Ombudsman is that the Workplace Ombudsman will say to them, ‘All I can do is apply the laws’—and the laws allow working families to be ripped off. The Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for North Sydney, the member for Warringah et cetera—the list goes on and on—sat around a cabinet table and imposed these laws on the Australian community knowing that they could rip people off.

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