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

In respect of the proposition that the amendments be disagreed to, the contribution by the shadow minister for workplace relations shows that he simply does not understand what is at the centre of this debate. We live in a democracy. I know that that passes the opposition by when they lose elections and determine in their arrogance that they should still be running the place. Something that the Liberal Party might like to reflect on is that we have a system in which governments are elected. Ministers in portfolio areas come together in ministerial councils. Under the former Howard government, what used to happen is that ministers came together in those ministerial councils and nothing got done, because of the unreasonableness, incompetence and laziness of the Howard government. Under this government, we are meeting in ministerial councils and COAG and getting things done.

Most particularly, we are committed in this area to harmonising occupational health and safety laws. To give you an idea of how quickly we are moving in this area after more than a decade of incompetence and nothing getting done, we are committed to the delivery of an exposure draft of model laws in May 2009. We are committed to those model laws going to the Workplace Relations Ministerial Council in September 2009. Anybody who knows anything about this area knows that that is the undertaking of a huge amount of work in a limited time period. Consequently, there is not a day to waste if we are going to deliver on this major agenda for businesses and working people in this country.

What the opposition is effectively asking the government to do is to not adhere to its word as given when it entered the intergovernmental agreement and to stop proceeding with this legislation to enter new rounds of discussions, inevitably leading to a new intergovernmental agreement. Even if that were possible—and that is an if—it would occasion major time delay. The opposition is standing here trying to pretend that somehow these are just sensible amendments that do not go to the heart of what was agreed between governments. But these amendments go to things like who is represented and in what numbers on Safe Work Australia.

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