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

I would have to say to my colleague that I actually paid for this copy, because the copy was out of the library—Jenny was using the copy in the library. So I have contributed to the sales of this book. But what we see in this book and what we have seen from the member for Warringah is some honesty, finally, on the position of the Liberal Party about Work Choices.

We know the present leader of the Liberal Party is cowering. He does not want to face the Work Choices debate, so he says Work Choices is dead. We know that the first alternative leader of the Liberal Party, the member for O’Connor, is making a run for the spot, because there is no-one else so uniquely qualified to lead a party of dinosaurs. He is unbeatable in that comparative advantage. If you want to lead dinosaurs then the member for O’Connor is definitely your man. The second alternative for the position of Leader of the Opposition, the member for Goldstein, is pretty much prepared to fight the Work Choices battle, and he is on the record as saying:

Above all, WorkChoices is critical to a strong economy.

So, if he stepped up to the plate, the cowering would be over and the Work Choices battle would be on. But you would have to say that the man with the most honesty and gumption when it comes to this debate is the third alternative Leader of the Opposition, the member for Warringah. When he was giving his round of publicity interviews trying to sell this book, he was asked by Kerry O’Brien on The 7.30 Report:

So you do want to revisit WorkChoices?

The member for Warringah says:

Well, if we are going to have productive workplaces, we can never ring down the curtain on workplace reform.

He then went on to say:

But things, I suspect, will be a little different by the time the next polling day comes around … I think people will be readier for reform from us … than they were at the last election.

Then he has added to the 7.30 Report comments today in this House, where he said that he claimed as an important part of productivity ‘the ability to offer people a statutory non-union individual contract’—his words, not mine.

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