Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to be speaking on this matter. The Fair Work Amendment (Bargaining Processes) Bill 2014 was introduced into parliament, into the House of Representatives, last year, before Christmas, and a lot of water has passed under the bridge in terms of the policies and subject matter of the bill but also in terms of the political process. Of course, this morning we witnessed the spectacle of a party room meeting where certain members of the government, 39 of them, declined to endorse the policy direction of the existing government—a full two-thirds of the backbench, I am advised. Perhaps it is that same life-shortening instinct that moved those 39 MPs to vote that way that has so abbreviated the speaking list on this particular subject matter before the House today, because normally, when a matter dealing with industrial relations regulation comes before the House, we see coalition member after coalition member stumble into this place, waving their arms around about the tyranny of unions, waving their way through last year's talking points—

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