Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank you, Madam Speaker. My point to the House is that the opposition should not be wasting the time of this parliament on suspensions of standing orders in which the Leader of the Opposition does not really believe. The Labor Party does not really believe in it either, because when it was in government it did not put in place the policies that would grow employment in this country. It introduced a carbon tax. Our program is to repeal it and it should allow us to get on and do it. It introduced a minerals resource rent tax, which hurt investment and jobs in the mining sector. It should allow us to get on with our program of repealing it. It abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission. It should allow us to get on with our program of re-establishing it in order to boost productivity, because the last time there was an ABCC it saved consumers $7.5 billion a year, it increased productivity in the building construction industry by 16.8 per cent and days lost through industrial action declined dramatically when that ABCC was in place. So rather than moving suspensions of standing orders in which the opposition does not really believe, it should instead be allowing the parliament to get on with the job of putting a tough cop on the beat, abolishing the carbon tax, abolishing the minerals resource rent tax and allowing our deregulation agenda and our agenda to grow businesses and reinstall confidence.

If the opposition were serious about jobs, it would get on board with our program of creating jobs in infrastructure, letting us be the infrastructure government that it was not. If it did, if it got out of the way of the government's agenda—and it could do it tomorrow by passing legislation that is stuck in the Senate—we would have: the East West Link being built, 3,200 jobs in construction; the WestConnex, 10,000 jobs during construction; and the Pacific Highway upgrade, 8,000 jobs during construction. These are real jobs that the Leader of the Opposition and his team are standing in the way of by not allowing the government to get on with their parliamentary and legislative agenda. Instead, the breathtaking hypocrisy of the Leader of the Opposition is to turn up here as a union official continuing to support union officials; being an unreconstructed union leader running a protection racket for a protection racket.

If he wants to be the prime minister, he needs to learn to rise above his background. He cannot do so because he is entirely beholden to the union movement. When the union movement asks him to dance, he takes out his dancing shoes and shows that he can boogie with the best of them. When they name a tune, he starts making his moves, busting his moves on behalf of the union movement. If he were serious about growing the economy, if he were serious about jobs, he would not waste the House's time with suspensions of standing orders. Instead he would support our program, pass the legislation in the Senate and allow the economy to begin to grow and for Australians to have the jobs that they need and want.

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