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

Let me be brief in answer to the shadow minister’s question. I would say in the conversation with that small business that I saved them from a Liberal Party amendment that would have caused a drop dead date at the end of five years with an overnight end to all state based differentials, with all of the chaos and uncertainty that that would cause. I would say that I and the Labor Party saved them from that madcap Liberal proposal and I would say that in doing that we brought to them, presuming of course that the Liberal Party in the Senate does not clutch on day after day to keep Work Choices by holding this bill up, that we have delivered exactly what we promised at the 2007 election—a sensible and measured transition.

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