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

I thank the member for Petrie for her question. Can I echo the words of the Treasurer: hard reform is not easy; it takes leadership, it takes discipline, it takes application. That is, of course, what the government is doing in the education revolution while we watch the Liberal Party seek to deny students scholarships next year. And when it comes to workplace relations, we are seeing reform vandalism take over the Liberal Party.

It has been a holy grail of microeconomic reform in this country to have one workplace relations system for the private sector for decades—literally decades. It is supported by businesses and business organisations right around the country. In the words of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, they said:

In the Australian context, the case for a single system being introduced in the early years of the 21st century is overwhelming.

In the words of Business SA, they said:

It is utter madness that we are a country of 22 million people with awards covering different people, different states and different situations.

After years of dithering and delay, we are on the cusp of delivering this holy grail of microeconomic reform. We have an agreement with Queensland, with New South Wales, with Victoria, with Tasmania and with South Australia to introduce our Fair Work system as the universal system for the private sector. Indeed, states have legislated their companion referring legislation—Queensland has, Victoria has, Tasmania has, South Australia has. Businesses around the country—the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the National Farmers Federation, the Australian Mines and Metals Association—are screaming out for this reform to be completed and to complete it we need the federal companion piece of legislation to the state referrals to go through this parliament this year.

What will happen if this piece of legislation does not go through this year? The state based referral bills will lapse. That will mean that, to build this again next year, we will need all of those parliaments to legislate again. I think we are all aware of the fragility of political systems, of the changes that elections and ministerial changes can bring. It is possible that we will never be able to put this together again if it is not completed this year. The Liberal Party are opposing this bill. You would think, on the cusp of a major microeconomic national reform, with those states having legislated, that you would get with the program and you would deliver this bill. You would assume, if you were going to seek to delay it or debate it, that you would have a very clear idea of what you were trying to achieve in doing so.

In this parliament, the following is the situation. The shadow minister for workplace relations has not even sought a briefing on the bill but he is opposed to it. The shadow minister for workplace relations and the Liberal Party have indicated vaguely in the public domain that they intend to amend the bill but they have not provided the government with the amendments. Here is a piece of national reform, called for by business organisations around the country, being held up by the Liberal Party, for what? For some mysterious reason that they refuse to tell us even in the form of amendments, causing all of the chaos and uncertainty that we will see for employers next year.

I would say to the Leader of the Opposition—and I acknowledge he is a man with a few things on his plate—when it comes to hard reform, when it comes to making a difference in this country for businesses, he should listen to the voices from ACCI, AMA and the NFF, who do not want small businesses next year to wake up in jurisdictional limbo, who do not want next year to be reliant on the anachronism and rigidities of state based awards but want to move to the simple modern award systems. If the Leader of the Opposition is in any doubt about the employer thirst for that, he should speak to the National Farmers Federation. I understand that the Leader of the Opposition has a few things on his plate but he needs to get to grips with this because we need the Liberal Party to change its ridiculous opposition to this bill and deliver this profound microeconomic reform.

There was a day in this country when the Liberal Party used to say it was the party of microeconomic reform. In those days, when they were led by a man called John Howard, John Howard frequently spoke about the need to deliver this major piece of reform, a uniform system of workplace relations for the private sector. The challenge is there for the Liberal Party: whether as a rabble in opposition they want to look like an absolute shadow of their former selves, embracing economic vandalism, or whether they want to do the right thing in the remaining days of this parliament and deliver this bill. We await the answer.

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