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

‘Of course,’ she is saying. She is verifying that individual statutory employment agreements are still Liberal policy. Well, that may be the policy of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, but the person we want to answer the question is the Leader of the Opposition. Will he verify that statutory employment agreements are still part of the Liberal Party’s policy or will he keep ducking the question? I have got news for him: when it comes to voting on this bill, which we will do in this House of Representatives before parliament rises at the end of the year, he has got a decision to make. And that decision will include making a policy decision on individual statutory employment agreements, because the objects of this act state that such agreements are not compatible with a fair and decent workplace relations system. For a man who says that he wants to answer questions, so far we have heard deafening silence. We are waiting for the answer. But, of course, we know, if he is truthful to what he believes in and what he has voted for before, he will say that he endorses industrial relations extremism—he endorses rip-offs—because in this parliament he already has.

See this speech in context