Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I start by saying it's very disappointing to see the continuation of this gesture based, grandstanding, virtue-signalling politics from the opposition through moving this amendment to the second reading motion for the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Take Home Pay) Bill 2017. In the end, what this government is focused on is outcomes for the Australian people. What we actually had with the Fair Work Commission was a Labor reference to a Labor-created Fair Work Commission and a Labor-appointed commissioner, and the response that came back is the one they are now opposing. Someone would almost have to say that they question whether the political judgement of the Australian Labor Party in bringing this issue forward and bringing forward the reference which led to the outcome is so that they can simply get up here and spout out how much they disagree with it. It's almost like it was a political arrangement that occurred in the first place. It's deeply disturbing to be able to draw those conclusions, but it seems kind of self-evident. That's what we're seeing today: gesture politics and virtue signalling.

That's when you have to recognise just how out of reality and out of step and out of touch the opposition are. They're not interested in delivering better outcomes for young Australians, who need more work opportunities and more creation of jobs so that they get their first taste in life of the kernel of opportunity, of work and of the dignity of work, particularly for a lot of women who want the opportunity to be able to work and often, particularly when they're balancing out some other family arrangements, are more likely to be able to work in casual arrangements. This government is a government that is committed not just to the opportunity of the few or the interests of one sectional interest or another but to the opportunity for everybody to have a country where people who want jobs and opportunities can secure them and not be priced completely out of the market by regulation and legislation or bad decisions by the previous government that make it harder for them to get jobs. Imagine that: a legislative and regulatory arrangement that makes it harder to get jobs, pushed by a party that claims it wants better outcomes for workers.

I guess only focusing on the interests of the people who are members of a union is what the modern Labor Party is about these days, particularly for public sector workers. They don't worry about unemployed people. They don't spend any time thinking about them. They don't stand up for the interests of people who don't have jobs and want to secure an opportunity to build the foundations of a happy and successful life, to afford their own home or to hold the dignity of work to provide for their family. That's the foundation of a Liberal philosophy. It's one of the core reasons why I'm a Liberal: we believe in the dignity of work and the opportunity it provides. The only position that comes from the opposition at the moment is to make that hard for people.

I do not know what's going through their brain sometimes. They don't actually seem to have any understanding. It's not just harder for the workers; it's harder for people who want to create economic opportunities for them. I speak to a number of people in my electorate who are aware of the challenges of employing people and get so frustrated, and I understand their frustration. They're actually trying to do good for this country. They're actually trying to create opportunities for more people to expand their businesses and employment opportunities, and the response is heckling and hectoring from the opposition, who want to make it harder. They can't understand why the opposition wants to make it harder to employ more young people and give them an opportunity in life and why the opposition, the modern Labor Party, is making it harder to employ women who want casual work arrangements to balance out their lifestyles and men who are in exactly the same situation, particularly when they're doing their best to create opportunity while at the same time building the opportunity for a family life.

One thing I will agree with the previous speaker on is that there are other priorities and issues for businesses as well. They're particularly concerned about rising electricity prices. We have a federal government that is, for the first time, sitting down and focusing on electricity prices in the right way, which is worrying about reliability and making sure people can afford supply, as well as the environmental challenges, rather than just being obsessed with appeasing a Green vote. It is actually thinking about what the country needs to secure the opportunities so that people can go and employ people and pay for people's salaries and jobs. But really, if their confected outrage about this issue—the virtue signalling they do in the other place and here—is sincere, let's sit down and have a proper conversation about industrial relations reform. If you're concerned about the decision of the body you set up, on the reference that you set up, by the appointed person who you put in—if you're so concerned about it—let's sit down and have a proper conversation about it. But we're not. We just get more and more fluff that's being put out there in the community because they want to be able to gesture to their communities that they're trying to defend them, when it's a complete lie. (Time expired)

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