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

As I have said in this parliament before, Fair Work Australia is independent. It may be the political culture of members of the Liberal Party to go and try and stand over independent bodies, to go and try and stand over the police, as we saw Senator Abetz flirting with last year, but that is not the culture of our political party, because we understand that, when you set up an independent umpire, you have got to let it do its job. So, to the Manager of Opposition Business, who asked the question, I say, as I have said before in this place and beyond it, the opposition continuously invites me to do something grossly improper in relation to Fair Work Australia, and that is to bully the industrial umpire on how and in what time frame it will conduct an investigation. Well, I will not do the grossly improper thing that the opposition so clearly believes in.

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