Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member asked a question about the prospective impact of the industrial relations legislation on a small business operator. As honourable members in this House would be aware, the circumstances concerning any individual small business operator in the country are only ultimately known to that small business operator, and I respect entirely the point of view put forward by anyone in the business community. It is their democratic right to object to or to support any element of the government’s legislation.

What I would say is that, in framing the government’s legislation, the government have been absolutely consistent. We have said from the beginning that we will act on the basis of getting the balance right between employers and employees; that we will provide a guarantee for those employees out there who had, through Work Choices, their redundancies stripped away from them; that we would act in support of those employees who have had other basic working conditions, such as their overtime penalty rates and other basic safety net provisions, stripped away from them. That was our mandate from the last election. Also, that is what we have reflected throughout the legislation.

We have been consistent throughout on this matter. And I would say to those opposite, to those who have said most recently that Work Choices is dead—Leader of the Opposition—and to those who have said most recently that the government’s position on unfair dismissal is one for which we have a mandate and they understand it, that again we see the same pattern, as has already been evidenced today in the matter of climate change. As to what they said last year and what they said earlier this year, it is a completely different season now that the Leader of the Opposition is under attack from the member for Higgins. What the Australian people want at a time of global economic recession and crisis is consistency of policy from the government. They would have the same expectation of consistency of policy on the part of those opposite. Is it their position today that Work Choices is dead? I would like to hear from them on that.

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