Darren Cheeseman (Corangamite, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am particularly pleased to be able to speak on this matter of public importance. I am pleased because this is a debate that brings out more evidence of exactly where the Liberal Party sit on workplace relations. Firstly, I can say that the accusation of secrecy is nonsense. It is untrue. The reality is that this is a Liberal Party in hiding. They are hiding from the fact that they had lost the election because of Work Choices. They are hiding the divisions this is creating in their own ranks, as we have seen recently with the Victorian Liberal Party bloggers and in other places such as this place. Not very effective hiding, Mr Deputy Speaker. The only thing that they are not hiding is their love for Work Choices—that and their desperate desire to return to Work Choices. And that is what this is all about. The member for Hasluck is right.

Both the honourable member for Curtin and the Leader of the Opposition have recently expressed their desire to return to the Work Choices regime. I quote the Leader of the Opposition from the Brisbane Club on 6 May this year:

We believe very strongly in individual statutory agreements. We will go to the next election with that as our first principle of industrial relations.

I now quote Julie Bishop in a speech to the AMMA conference:

The introduction of AWAs in 1996 played a major role in revolutionising workplaces for the better in this country ... The nation must deal with the maze of laws, regulations, awards and so on that makes our workplace relations system one of the most complex in the world.

I want to talk about some impacts of Work Choices in my own electorate, first of all on local families. So many local families could not get a home loan or a car loan because they had no job security. They were part of the former government’s great casualisation process under Work Choices. Work Choices also deregulated hours, which meant that there was no guaranteed family time anymore. Work Choices, the policy the opposition desperately want back, is antifamily. Work Choices is antichildren. Work Choices destroys job security.

Then there are the impacts on local sporting clubs. Many local sports clubs were devastated by Work Choices. People could not commit to participating in sports or volunteering to help out. Parents could not commit to taking their kids to sports. Work Choices, the policy the opposition just love, is anticommunity. It is also unhealthy. Work Choices was physically unhealthy for our community. The community knows this but the opposition just do not get it. That is why their leader is Mr Nine Per Cent.

My local observations are not just anecdotal evidence. The raw, cold facts are as follows: at the time, the Office of the Employment Advocate revealed that 100 per cent of AWAs cut at least one so-called protected award condition; 64 per cent cut annual leave loading; 63 per cent cut penalty rates; 52 per cent cut shift work loadings; and 48 per cent cut monetary allowances. Those are the facts—the raw, cold facts. Nobody’s job was safe under Liberal policies. Nobody’s accrued entitlements were safe. Nobody’s wages, nobody’s penalty rates, nobody’s working hours, nobody’s family lives and nobody’s weekends were safe. But, most importantly, 99 per cent of the Australian workforce could be sacked for no reason, with no comeback. (Time expired)

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