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

I thank the honourable member for North Sydney, the minister for Work Choices, for his question. What I can say about the impact of a global recession is that the last thing Australian workers want now is the reintroduction of Work Choices. There the Liberal Party stand, led by the member for North Sydney, saying that what working families across Australia want now is Work Choices—Work Choices, which strips away redundancy payments; Work Choices, which strips away penalty rates; Work Choices, which strips away overtime; Work Choices, which strips away basic protections in the workplace. In a time of global recession, the free market fundamentalists opposite say that their solution for the future is to rip and tear away at the protections for Australians in the workplace.

The government’s strategy is clear. We will implement an economic stimulus strategy in order to reduce the impact of the global recession on Australian jobs. That is the government’s plan. That is the government’s strategy. That is what we are getting on with doing. I say this to the member for North Sydney: it is very easy to sit there and carp and be negative. It is very easy to tear down and not to build up—

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