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

The opposition's campaign of misleading continues. I have explained it to the parliament once and I will explain it again to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and to members of the opposition generally. Section 431 enables the minister for workplace relations to make a declaration. The provision has never been used. It was first introduced into Australian industrial relations law by the Howard government. There were times during this questioning in parliament yesterday when members of the opposition were yelling out: 'What is it for? Why is it there?' Let us just note what the facts are: this provision was introduced by the Liberal government; it enables a minister to make a declaration; it has never been used. So my point before the House yesterday and my point before the House today—and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has taken the point out of context—is that, because it has not been used and because the advice to us is that the ministerial declaration would be capable of judicial review, the use of that ministerial declaration could then have triggered long-running court cases which would have taken us into unknown legal terrain. It has not been used before.

This is another campaign of misleading by the opposition—day in, day out. The Leader of the Opposition switched his position from government should not intervene to, on Friday, government should intervene, without any explanation as to why he changed his mind between those two points, given the escalation of the dispute did not happen until Sunday, when Qantas notified that it would be locking its staff out. To the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, when the Leader of the Opposition changed his mind and the opposition started calling for the use of section 431, the other thing it misled about is the circumstances in which it can be used. It cannot be used just willy-nilly; you have to meet a particular test.

Then, of course, the opposition has misled about what the minister needs to do. The opposition yesterday and today has continued to mislead and say that all the minister needs to do is instantaneously sign a piece of paper. That is not correct. Because the matter is capable of judicial review, the minister has to have a body of evidence and there is also the prospect that the minister needs to extend procedural fairness to the parties and hear from the parties. When you properly assess, therefore, what you need to do under section 431, it means you end up in proceedings, effectively, very like—

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