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

Can I say to the Liberal Party members who have spoken that hypocrisy is thick in the air in this chamber today. If the Liberal Party had cared so passionately about occupational health and safety over 12 long years of government, you would have thought they would have got something done. But they did not. And then when you hear the Liberal Party in this place saying that somehow they care about the representation of the union movement, you know you smell a rat. You know that you smell a rat because we watched the Liberal Party over 12 long years, particularly in the Work Choices period, act to ensure that people were denied appropriate representation by trade unions. As much as anything else they were of course dedicated to disadvantaging working Australians; they were of course dedicated to making sure that 16- and 17-year-olds in their first job could be ripped off fundamentally by their first Australian workplace agreement—and they laugh with delight at that prospect; and they were of course dedicated to the destruction of the Australian trade union movement. So when the Liberal Party come into this place and say that somehow they have had a road to Damascus conversion, that they now care about the representation of the trade union movement on a body like Safe Work Australia, you will forgive me if I say that I smell a rat.

The rat that I smell has been made very clear by the leaked shadow cabinet briefing, because we actually find the true motivations of the Liberal Party in the document that went for internal discussions to its highest council in opposition, the shadow cabinet.

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