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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I know the facts stand in the way of the opposition but they are going to hear the facts. Section 431 is the section of the Fair Work Act that enables a minister to make a declaration about industrial action. The opposition have pretended all of this question time, and they have pretended in the public debate, that the way in which that section works is that a minister just gets out a sheet of paper and scrawls on it 'I declare' and then it is done. In creating that impression in here and in the public debate, the opposition are peddling a falsehood. The peddling of that falsehood should stop here and it should stop now. It is not the right thing to do—in circumstances where the national interest is engaged, where tens of thousands of Australians have been stranded and where Australians have been anxious about the circumstances of the national economy—for the opposition to peddle that falsehood. Section 431 does not enable a minister to get out a piece of paper, scribble 'I declare' on it and sign it. That is not how it works. The minister needs to be satisfied of certain facts in order to make the declaration; the minister needs to inform himself or herself.

Opposition members interjecting—

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