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

I know that the member for North Sydney believes in Work Choices. He defends Work Choices every day. He did it every day in government at this dispatch box, and he is doing it now. He is doing his defence of Work Choices. Maybe the member for North Sydney, in defending Work Choices, might like to defend the shambles that happened under his administration, which needed to be resolved by this government.

I am pleased to report to the House that we are resolving the Liberal shambles. Of the 337,000 agreements lodged under the previous government’s so-called fairness test some 281,000 have now been finalised and 15,500 are back with employers for them to provide further information or amendment to meet the requirements of the act. So the Liberal Party that said to the Australian people, ‘You should be able to be ripped off at work’ also said to Australian employers, ‘Here is a mountain of red tape to tie you up in.’ We are fixing both.

I am asked about responses to my announcement yesterday about further details of Labor’s Forward with Fairness plans to ensure that Australian working people get treated with fairness while businesses are able to get on with the job with a simple workplace relations system. I am pleased to advise the House that there has been a positive reaction to this announcement. For example, the National Farmers Federation gave an endorsement to the government’s Fair Dismissal Code, which is showing a new way to balance fairness at work for working Australians with the needs of small business. The National Farmers Federation said of the Fair Dismissal Code—

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