Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

Surely that cannot be unparliamentary: 'Lies were told'. Let us be very clear about it: this parliament should see the Prime Minister apologise to the Australian people for what has happened in terms of the undertakings given prior to the election and what has happened subsequently.

Disregard for electors and for the truth clearly now spreads to industrial relations. The Prime Minister's promise to abide by the Fair Work review's recommendations when making changes to this industrial relations legislation has gone the way of his other promises. As the shadow minister has reminded us in his contribution to this bill:

It is now clear that the government could not be trusted to honour its most basic promise—namely, to implement recommendations from the 2012 Fair Work review without change. Instead, the government is putting down its own spin on Fair Work recommendations while trying to pass them off as a carbon copy of what the expert panel proposed.

Let us make it very clear: like in so much of what this government does, it has overstepped. Not only has it been dishonest but it has clearly overstepped. There is within this parliament the capacity for the government to seek to change the way it operates to make sure it does not overstep, that it does operate with honesty and integrity, and that it does not tolerate lies being told. It really has that capacity. Whilst we have these faux lectures from the Prime Minister about what we should as parliamentarians and what the community should be doing about our own honesty and integrity, he needs to demonstrate some in this place. He needs to demonstrate some of this place and he should do it as soon as possible.

We are not fools in this place and the Australian public are not fools. They know precisely what has been going on. Here is just another example. We know that, whilst there are some people in the broader community who might support aspects of this legislation, some believing it not going far enough, it is very clear that this bill, as described by the ACTU secretary:

… undermines a range of key rights at work and is an exercise in the Government ticking off the pre-election wish list of the mining industry.

If that is the case, that is clearly inappropriate and clearly another example of dishonesty and dishonest treatment.

I go back to the member for Canning. How could we not sit here—well, I was sitting in and therefore listened to him. I was confused, simply because he is a confusing fellow, but also because the message was so devoid of any reality about the rights of Australian working men and women and about the role of trade unions in this country. We on this side of the chamber are proud of the role of Australian trade unions in our history. We know, as we were reminded also very recently by a former Prime Minister, about the role the trade unions have played in the lives of every working Australian, whether or not they are a member of a trade union. We should applaud them for the work they have been doing and provide them with the capacity to continue their work in the future and make sure that they, like us—and you—have the responsibility of looking after the interests of Australian working people.

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