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

I well and truly understand the sensitivity of the member for Sturt about anything that promotes the member for Warringah, who is obviously after his job as Manager of Opposition Business. I have a position in that debate: the member for Warringah would be a lot better at the job. There is no doubt about that. But moving past the member for Sturt’s sensitivity, obviously with these quotes from Tony Abbott we are well and truly seeing a return of the Work Choices debate. What I would ask the member for Warringah is: can he really say to the Australian people that Australian workplace agreements that strip away pay and conditions for working people are more appropriate during a global recession? Can he really say that during a global recession what Australians want is Australian workplace agreements that would enable their entitlement to redundancy to be stripped away, which would enable them to be dismissed for no reason at all? I thank the member for Warringah for his honesty, I thank him for the title of his book—Battlelinesbecause he is absolutely right. When it comes to the debate for fairness and decency at work the battlelines are drawn: this side of the House standing for decency and that side of the House standing, as always, for Work Choices, no matter who leads them and no matter how many of them the Liberal Party goes through.

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