Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for referring this question to me, because it goes to a very important issue about the completely fallacious presentation we are hearing from the other side of the House about this so-called 'same job, same pay' issue, which is essentially a made-up issue. There is no barrier under Labor's own Fair Work Act to an enterprise agreement. The requirement under Labor's own Fair Work Act is that you can be employed under an enterprise agreement as long as you are better off than under an award. If that was good enough for Labor under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, we need to understand what has changed.

The fact is that the percentage of people employed on a labour hire basis is less than two per cent, but the people who are really unhappy about it are the union bosses. Only 14 per cent of Australians are now union members, down from 40 per cent. What we on this side of the House care about—

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