Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member opposite wants to point her finger at ordinary and average Australians and tell them who to work for and what to work for and where to go and how to go there. What she hates the most about this is the fact that Australians don't need unions, that Australians want to get out of your industry super rort which you have created and which you forced them into. You talk about fairness. You talk about casualisation. Why don't you look at your own figures. Why don't you look at the Productivity Commission figures that show there has been no increase in casualisation since your failed Fair Work Act came into place. There is one thing that we can agree on in this chamber: Labor's Fair Work Act is a failure. It has failed. Everyone at the Fair Work Commission you appointed has failed to increase real wages for working Australians. Guess what? It's centralised control that you want to bring in. You will not be satisfied until you literally have control over everyone's lives. You think you're the smartest people in every room you walk into. That's right—she's nodding! She acknowledges that Australians should not be allowed to decide how to spend their money, where to spend it, where to work and what to do.

You think you're the smartest people in the room and Australians are idiots. I'm here to tell you they're not. They see through all your front groups. They see through all the carry-on. They see through the camera crews out the front asking all the questions. They know what you're really up to. If there been a more dehumanising motion before this House, this is it. The whole idea is that all Australians are the same Australians and must be told what to do by those opposite. Until the union movement has control of our alphabet—as we've seen with the CFMMEU—and until they have controlled everything they possibly can, those opposite will not be satisfied.

We on this side believe in Australians. We on this side believe that they have the capacity to choose and to know what to do. I agree with those opposite; they haven't seen a pay rise under the Fair Work Act, they haven't seen a pay rise under the Fair Work Commission, and they haven't seen real wage increases under your law. That's why half of them are trying to get out of all the enterprise agreements that you have forced upon them. Shake your head as much as you want; it doesn't change the fact that what you have done to workplace law in this country is a disgrace. You have condemned average Australians to lower wages and less interesting jobs, and you have made sure that they have to suffer.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Lalor on a point of order.

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