Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker Claydon, and congratulations on your appointment.

I knew that when we came into government we wouldn't get to choose the MPI anymore, but I didn't realise they'd take requests! Of all the issues that could be raised today, it just shows that they are in one lockstep system and are exactly where they were when they were in government. They haven't learned a thing and won't learn a thing.

To have the end of that speech from the party that refused to implement the Respect@Work report is just beyond belief. To have that speech from the people who sat here voting against a positive obligation on an employer to provide a safe workplace speaks volumes about those opposite.

But I'll start with the concept of the government 's priorities. When the Leader of the Opposition wanted to say what the first priority was, he sort of missed the application on the annual wage review. He sort of missed that. He sort of didn't want to acknowledge that the first thing that happened in my portfolio was that we argued that the lowest paid workers should get a pay increase, and they got it. After all the outrage and claims that the sky would fall in, that was the first thing that we did.

And what is the first legislative action that we'll be taking? It's to introduce family and domestic violence leave, something that people have been waiting too many years for and that those opposites have voted against on too many occasions.

Going to the issues that the Leader of the Opposition has spoken about directly, he's spoken about the ABCC. He's given all these examples of criminal behaviour. There's one problem. You do know the ABCC isn't allowed to deal with criminal behaviour?

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