Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

In terms of the member's preamble to that series of questions I would point out that it is a serious matter of detail if our industrial relations system has the potential to be undermined, given that what we have put in place has served the country well, as is evidenced by the 740,000 increase in jobs, by the reduction in industrial disputes, by the fact that even though we are the only developed country in the world to have avoided the recession we have still been able to sustain effective non-inflationary growth, and, thirdly and fourthly, we have also been able to do it by lifting the living standards of workers. If that detail causes concern to the other side, there is something wrong with them. But it is also a level of detail that is seriously under threat because of the pattern of behaviour by the same political party that sits in New South Wales and that sits opposite us in the opposition.

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