Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

and we know of his academic record. We also know that the member for Hume is a Rhodes scholar. So let us not have an argument about who has got the kilo brain here. Both of them are well placed to have a say. At the end of the day, the member for Hume, both in his article that I referred to and in his contribution today, made it very clear that productivity is the worker's best friend. He pointed to where the member for Fraser had done research on wage cases in Western Australia, my home state, which justified his argument that productivity adds to wage increases and lowers youth unemployment.

The 'Peel Away the Mask' article, which was first produced in 2001—and has since been revised—and which reflects the unemployment situation in the Peel area of my electorate in Canning, has a lot to say about youth unemployment in the Peel region. Youth unemployment in the Peel region is quite serious because it is always above the national and state average. A lot of this is to do with the exact thing that we are talking about today: young people getting a job where they can actually grow their wages and conditions.

Every member opposite—and we know why they are in here—has to belong to a union. You cannot be a member of the Labor Party unless you are a member of a union. As soon as you talk about productivity or flexibility, the first thing those opposite do is to start going on about Work Choices or taking away workers' entitlements or making sure that they get less.

Ms MacTiernan interjecting—

Dr Leigh interjecting—

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