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

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition shouts, ‘That’s right.’ So the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has just verified in the parliament that the Liberal Party are opposed to any initiative that goes beyond Work Choices. I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for confirming in the parliament today that they do not want to see any modicum of fairness; they want to stick with Work Choices. She, I acknowledge, is a purist.

Then, of course, we have seen some of the pretenders out and about today. Most particularly, we have seen the shadow minister for finance, Senator Coonan. She is a pretender. She said, ‘We have said all along that we recognise the government’s mandate,’ while she walks in and out of the Senate voting on amendments that are purpose designed to deny that mandate and keep Work Choices.

But let’s come to the biggest pretender of them all, the Leader of the Opposition, who now faces a fundamental question of character as this parliament deals with the Fair Work Bill, because this is about the rights of working Australians. It is about whether the Liberal Party are out there publicly, loudly endorsing Work Choices or whether they are scurrying around quietly supporting it. But it has also become a test of the honesty of the Leader of the Opposition, a question of character for him, because last December he said: ‘Labor took a proposal to change the unfair dismissal laws to the election and won, so we must respect that.’ Having uttered those words, there are only two choices for the Leader of the Opposition: he can stand up and say, ‘In December I did not tell the Australian people the truth because I am not a man who tells the truth,’ or he can ensure that the Liberal Party in the Senate vote as he instructed them to vote last December. There are only two choices here for the Leader of the Opposition: he can expose himself to the Australian people as a dishonest man or he can instruct his senators to vote for the Fair Work Bill. We wait to see what choice he is going to make.

See this speech in context