Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation) Share this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection—stealing superannuation. The 769 workers dudded by Queensland Nickel in Townsville were compensated to the tune of $67 million by the Fair Entitlements Guarantee. The Queensland Supreme Court two weeks ago froze the assets of former member and owner of Queensland Nickel Clive Palmer to the tune of $205 million. Our great hope is that the action we're taking in the courts will, as it unfolds, return every cent that the workers of Queensland Nickel are owed—that they are entitled to. This is the reality. Those opposite want to hypothesise or character slay; we're interested in results.

Today there are more people working than ever before in our country's history. That comes at the end of 4½ years of strong economic management. It doesn't come at the end of taking a punt or having a crack; it comes at the end of strong economic management. Of the one million jobs that have been created—417,000-odd in the last 12 months—80 per cent are full-time jobs, and this is at a time when the union movement in this country is claiming that we have a crisis of occasional work. Eighty per cent of the jobs created in the last 12 months are full-time. Twenty-five per cent of jobs in the last 20 years—and it hasn't changed—have been casual, predominantly filled by school students, uni students and carers, and they get a 25 per cent loading. Another myth that those opposite like to propagate is that those on casual wages aren't compensated for holiday pay. That's rubbish. They get a 25 per cent loading for that. That is the reality of what we face with those opposite—character assassination after character assassination, and misrepresentation of the truth.

The reality of where we find ourselves today economically is that more workers than ever have a job. That comes at the end of a plan. What do we want to do? We want to continue to decrease personal and company tax. We don't think that is our money, unlike those opposite. We think that companies or individuals should keep their profit from their labour. It's their profit or wage, not ours. We on this side get that. I know that those opposite don't get it. They've never actually put their hand in their own pocket and paid anyone themselves. They've never run their own business. Their ignorance is stunning. The character assassination isn't worth the paper it is written on.

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