Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I reject the intervention. Under Fair Work Australia, the rates of industrial disputes are on average about one-third of the rate we saw under the previous coalition government and in the building and construction industry they are around one-fifth of the rate we saw under the previous coalition government. This is at a time when more Australians than ever before are covered by enterprise agreements, which shows that the vast majority of the agreements are made without any industrial action at all. What we see in this bill is the determination of the Abbott government to take Australia back to the failed Australian Building and Construction Commission. That shows that the return to Work Choices is just below the surface of this government. And a very poor disguise this bill is, indeed.

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