Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Makin for his question. He knows that Labor stands for good jobs, he knows that Labor stands for a fair go all around and he knows that this Labor government stands for getting the work-life family balance right. He also knows that it is important that the people of Australia understand the position of the two major parties in terms of workplace relations.

Workplace relations is an appropriate matter for debate in the national parliament of Australia. Even if some opposite do not like what we stand for on workplace relations, people know what we stand for. We stand for fair laws to protect people against unfair dismissal. We stand for improving superannuation from nine to 12 per cent for people like the 46,000 voters in the member for Makin's electorate. People know that we stand for the recognition that there should be penalty rates for people who work family-unfriendly hours. People know that we stand for safer roads via Safe Roads for truck drivers. People know that Labor stands for better protection for outworkers.

What people do not know is the opposition's workplace relations policy. This is an obstacle. It renders a disservice to the people of Australia. Whatever people think about the merits of competing policies, they do have a right to expect that the so-called alternative government of Australia will front up on industrial relations and tell us their policies. But not all is lost.

First of all we have the Leader of the Opposition, who uses cliches as a substitute for thinking. The opposition leader always says, 'We will be in the sensible centre.' The opposition's policies could not fill out a full tweet. But what we also do have is the actions of the state governments, because if we cannot find what goes on at the national level it is legitimate for this parliament to debate the actions of their fraternal political party, at the state level. And we know what the opposition stands for through their state brothers and sisters. They stand for job cuts, for terrible processes in the way they implement job cuts, for not guaranteeing the transfer of people's entitlements if they are outsourced.

Mr Hockey interjecting—

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