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

‘He had a job,’ the Deputy Leader of the Opposition says—exactly what the Prime Minister said in defending Billy’s case as fair and reasonable. I thank her for her confirmation that driving people back to minimum wages with no award conditions is still Liberal Party policy. I thank her for that confirmation.

There we have it: a Liberal Party still committed to Work Choices. If the Liberal Party are still committed to Work Choices, they are committed to that rip-off of working people. All of the carry-on we have seen from members opposite about their supposed concerns about cost-of-living pressures on working Australians, supposed concerns about petrol, supposed concerns about childcare costs and supposed concerns about grocery costs—all of this melts away in an avalanche of hypocrisy given they are committed to minimum wage workers bearing the brunt of their industrial relations extremism.

Someone needs to explain to members opposite that the equation for working families is one that equals: what comes in in the pay packet and what goes out. As to what comes in in the pay packet, they believe in having laws which enable it to be cut for those in the workplace with the least bargaining power.

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