Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No. They said: 'Let's have an inquiry into the workplace laws of this country. Let's open it up so that we look at everything in the workplace, including minimum rates and penalty rates.' You would not have done that if you were not intent on getting back to where you were. It is like a dog returning to its vomit; it really is. It has gone back to where it wants to belong. It shows its true colours. It wants to get back to Work Choices, otherwise it would not have done it. This time they want to be able to come into this place and say: 'It wasn't us. We are simply implementing the recommendations of the Productivity Commission.' That is what they want to do. Just think about it. They want to say: 'Trust us. We're not going to touch wages.' Why don't you ask the cleaners when they visit your office here at night, or, if you get in here early enough—and I know the member for Mitchell does—ask them in the morning, 'Have their wages been touched by this government?' Those opposite know what the answer is. That is why they have not asked them. The answer is: they have.

Do not forget these are the same people who said: 'There'll be no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no cuts to pensions, no cuts to the SBS and the ABC'—all that sort of stuff. They do not take these promises all that seriously. So, when they stand up here and say, 'We will not touch the working conditions of Australian workers,' do you want to believe them?

Opposition members: No!

They can't. And those opposite want to go quiet on that because they know that they have form. They have allowed the stripping away of award conditions in the past. They have allowed people on minimum rates of pay to be affected. Now they want the Productivity Commission to do it on their behalf. Shame, Tony Abbott.

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