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

While I suspect it is a little bit unusual for questions on government policy to be introduced in the context of opposition amendments, if it suits the convenience of the House, I will answer some questions from the shadow minister now and I trust we can then move through to what I presume is a division and then the introduction of government amendments, because as you would be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker, the House has much business pressing upon it and many hours to sit yet.

Everything to do with workplace relations is an important issue, which is why we have gone to so much trouble to work with stakeholders to get the balance right. When I issued the award modernisation request, my instructions to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission were clear: this is not a process in which we want to see employees disadvantaged or additional costs to employers. I understand that is a difficult balance, and to be fair to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, given the huge amount of work that lay before it in award modernisation, and given this is a task that has been tried over the years and people—including, most spectacularly, the Liberal Party—have failed, in getting it done they are doing a remarkably good job.

Yes, there have been some concerns, and people would be aware that very recently I have responded to a set of concerns raised by the restaurant and catering industry. There are concerns that have been raised and worked through by government, and we will continue to work through the issues in a collaborative approach with employers. I would say to the shadow minister opposite, who now presumes himself to somehow be speaking on behalf of others, that maybe at some point—and I understand that this is a process that does not allow me to ask him questions—he might want to explain to the representatives of employers in this country why they have been able to have so much time working with draft legislation and working with the government on getting the balance right when the track record of his political party in office is that these representatives were shut out and presented with a fait accompli, much of it viewed by them as unworkable.

I would also ask the shadow minister to contemplate, before he styles himself as a representative for others in this debate: why is it that his political party imposed on employers a system that ended up with more than 100,000 agreements backlogged while waiting for processing, with employers thrown into chaos as they waited many months for the processing of them? I would also ask the shadow minister why it is, if he is now saying somehow all of this is not the right thing to be doing, that his political party voted for the first workplace relations bill that I brought to this parliament, which included the provisions that set us on the track of modernising awards? Why is it that they voted for that?

Where we are, with this debate, is that the government has an election policy. It got the endorsement of the Australian people.

See this speech in context