Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question. Today, the House did in fact pass the Fair Work Amendment (Respect for Emergency Services Volunteers) Bill; through the parliament in to the Senate. This bill will strike out the objectionable clauses of the enterprise bargaining agreement in Victoria that covers firefighters and, effectively, hands unconscionable power to the unions over the volunteer firefighters. It is another good example of a government getting on with the job and achieving things for Australians. It is one of the latest examples of where this government is simply getting things done.

We are working constructively in this 45th Parliament. We are working constructively to deliver on our promises to create jobs, to grow the economy. Today, we passed the CFA bill. Yesterday, we passed the Budget Savings (Omnibus) Bill—repairing the budget by $6.3 billion—with the support of the opposition. Today, we announced our superannuation reforms, working cooperatively across the parliament, within politics and with the stakeholders to ensure we have fairer superannuation rules here in Australia. This week, we introduced the bill to hold a national plebiscite on marriage equality. So one after the other, we are implementing the promises and the commitments that we took to the election because this government are determined to do that and to get the fundamentals right. We are not forgetting that the economy is the No. 1 issue. Growth is 3.3 per cent. Jobs are up. We created over 200,000 jobs in the last 12 months. Business confidence is up. Consumer confidence is up. We are continuing with our strong borders and national security and defence security.

We will work together with whoever wants to work with this government—whether it is the Labor Party in the case of the omnibus savings bill; whether it is with the Greens in the case of other matters where they believe they want to support the government and we believe they can help us on national tax and so on; whether it is the crossbenchers in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, we will work with them. The most important thing that we can all do as parliamentarians is make the lives of Australians better, make our country and our economy better and make our society better.

Those members of the Labor Party who want to be so last 44th Parliament, let me say to them: we are in a new parliament and the parliament is working, and if you intend to continue with the same tactics that you have had for so long—

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