Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a perfect end to such a pathetic performance. Today the people of Australia are breathing a sigh of relief. At long last, AWAs are being buried—and not a minute too soon. Like all members on this side of the House, I welcome the passage through the Australian parliament today of legislation to abolish AWAs. This will be a great relief for the working people of Australia. It will be a very great relief for the working people of my electorate of Blaxland, many of whom have suffered from these extreme and unfair workplace laws. I know this because everywhere I go, whether it is to a street stall, a railway station, a shopping centre or at the coalface in the workplaces of my electorate, I hear shocking stories from people who have lost their jobs or their working conditions. They have had their shift loadings, leave loadings, rest breaks and penalty rates all stripped away and unfair contracts shoved down their throats.

What was confirmed on 24 November last year is that Australians care about fairness. They expect fair workplace laws—and that is why they threw that lot out. In November 1907, Justice Henry Bournes Higgins handed down the Harvester decision, which enshrined the concept of fairness in our industrial relations laws. What happened in November 2007? The people of Australia threw out the party that had installed and instituted a lack of fairness into our industrial relations system and workplace laws—piece by piece and chunk by awful chunk. The Deputy Prime Minister has revealed in this place the horror stories of Work Choices and AWAs. Here is the smoking gun. Since the election, the Workplace Authority has confirmed, from a sample of AWAs from April to October 2006, the types of protected award conditions that were removed by AWAs. It found that 89 per cent of AWAs removed at least one protected award condition, 83 per cent excluded two or more, 78 per cent excluded three or more, 71 per cent excluded four or more, 61 per cent excluded five or more and 52 per cent excluded six or more. What were the most commonly removed protected award conditions? Seventy per cent removed shift work loadings, 68 per cent removed annual leave loadings and 65 per cent removed penalty rates.

This is what they did. This is what they wrought on the people of Australia. This is what they imposed on working families and this is why the people of Australia threw them out on their ear. What did they do as soon as they got control of the Senate? They implemented laws that they had been craving to implement for over a decade. As soon as they got their hands on the Senate they instituted these horrendous laws. They rammed Work Choices and AWAs down the throats of Australian workers. This is the former government, whose years in government the member for Warringah last week told us would be remembered as ‘the golden age of compassion’. I repeat: last week in a debate the member for Warringah had the gall to stand up and say that the Howard government years would be remembered as ‘the golden age of compassion’. Only today he said that Work Choices was ‘good for Australian workers’. The people of Australia did not think it was much good for them and they did not think it was very compassionate. That is why they threw the Howard government out.

Work Choices was an abject failure. It hurt people and it hurt them for no good end. It was bad for working families, it was bad for the economy and it was bad for business. The Howard government said that Work Choices would deliver low inflation. Where are interest rates? Interest rates are at record highs—the second highest in the developed world. They are at the highest level they have been in 16 years.

This matter of public importance is all about business confidence. I will tell you what destroys business confidence: it is inflation. I had a look at the Sensis business index on small and medium business enterprises from February this year and this really goes to the point of the opposition’s argument. It stated:

... concerns about rising interest rates were the key reasons for SMEs lacking confidence—

in this quarter. It went on:

... the main reason businesses gave for feeling worried about their prospects related to concerns over increasing interest rates ...

Well, there you have it. That is what business is saying. Interest rates are sapping business confidence. And who is responsible for rising interest rates? Who is responsible for the highest interest rates in 16 years? Who is responsible for the second highest interest rates in the developed world? Who ignored 20 warnings from the Reserve Bank?

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