Barry Haase (Durack, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

May I say at the outset that, firstly, I am amazed at the tenacity of the member for Wakefield in not pulling his motion that he proposed for debate today on the Fair Work Act. In the circumstances of the preceding 48 hours, one would have expected the member for Wakefield to generally follow in the footsteps of his party and run away from tough issues, because we well know that members of the Labor Party, made up from the union movement, today run away from major issues because they can and because they have no solid investment in the problem at hand. This private member's motion asks, amongst other things, that we note that the industrial system under the Fair Work Act 2009 is working well, with low unemployment and low levels of industrial disputation. What monumental words.

The reason we have low unemployment is that we have a couple of states in this nation, regardless of union activity, that are still forging ahead, that are supplying world markets and doing it well and that are employing everyone who has a head, two arms and two legs. Certainly, we have low unemployment, but we do not have low unemployment as a result of the Fair Work Act 2009. Nothing could be more certain.

In relation to low levels of industrial disputation, dear oh dear, doesn't the member for Wakefield now regret this motion? The last 48 hours have seen action, unprecedented in this country, taken by Qantas that has resulted in 70,000 passengers being affected, 600 flights cancelled and seven grounded aircraft. We have had rolling strikes by unions whose members have chosen to send the 'Flying Kangaroo' to the ground permanently, if not offshore. There is no way that all the talk, all the bluster or all the protestations can deny the fact that this is the aspiration of the union—quite simply to make sure that the Flying Kangaroo is brought to its knees and certainly sent offshore.

Mr Champion interjecting—

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