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

Oh, that is right; it is them! But it is not only business that is hurting. The failure of the former government to rein in inflation has a human face and it is a human face that people on this side of the House know only too well. Today 1.1 million Australians are suffering from housing stress. Last year 9,751 Australians lost their homes. Today in my electorate of Blaxland three families will be evicted from their homes. This is the human face of their failure. As I told the House earlier this week, no-one is suffering more than the people of my electorate. Last year 300 families lost their homes. The year before that, another 300 lost their homes. I speak with some trepidation here, but the data indicates it will only be worse this year. In the last six months the number of evictions has doubled. The Sheriff’s Office at Bankstown Court House is now evicting 15 families a week. So don’t come in here and lecture us on economics. The party of Work Choices is the party that has inflicted that on my electorate and on the people of Australia.

For those who could keep their heads above water, Work Choices made it all the harder. Keeping up with repayments meant living with the looming threat of Work Choices and the loss of job security. Those opposite also say that Work Choices would increase productivity. What happened to productivity? It has fallen to zero. They said that Work Choices would be good for business. What does the evidence tell us? The evidence says that Work Choices imposed compliance costs on business of more than $950 million. That is almost $1 billion. That does not sound ‘good for business’ to me. At least John Howard had the guts to stand up in Washington DC the other week and say that he still believes in Work Choices, which is a lot more than opposition members are prepared to do today. At least he has the guts to say what he thinks. The opposition did not even have the guts to turn up to a division today to tell us what they think. They want us to assume they have seen the light. They want us to assume they have backflipped on Work Choices, like they backflipped on Kyoto and the stolen generation.

I have never met John Howard, but he must be a terrifying man. He must have been a very strong and tough leader because they want us to believe that they all disagreed with him—that John Howard wanted Work Choices, that John Howard wanted to oppose Kyoto, that John Howard said, ‘Don’t apologise to the stolen generation,’ but they disagreed with him. But no-one had the guts to tell him and no-one had the guts to tell him to go. That draws into question their capacity to lead. They are pretty good followers but they are not good leaders. That is now over because they want Australia to think there is furious agreement in this chamber—that we all believe that Work Choices should be thrown in the dustbin of history, that we all believe in signing Kyoto, that we all believe in apologising to the stolen generation. All the climate change sceptics have disappeared, all the Work Choices advocates have vanished and all the opponents of an apology have had a change of heart. I can only assume they are all republicans now as well. If only that were true.

Do not hold your breath, because they revealed their true selves today when they ran out of this chamber with their tail between their legs. They say Work Choices is dead, then they say it is alive again, then they say it is dead. They breathed life back into Work Choices again today when they told us it was good for Australian workers. Be under no illusion: this is the party of Work Choices. They cannot be trusted not to bring it back. It is the zombie policy that will rise again from the dead if the people of Australia re-elect them to run this country.

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