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

I want to thank the member for Blair, both for his role in this parliament and for the question, and also as one of the members of this parliament who's committed to making sure that people earn more and keep more of what they earn, as opposed to being one of those members of this place who's committed to people working longer for less; they're in this room as well.

And it's interesting that I hear that those opposite have made their first election commitment now in my portfolio, and the first commitment wasn't about whether there'd be new forms of bargaining. That didn't make them angry enough to make a commitment. The concepts of other legislation that we'd done about bargaining or the Fair Work Commission—none of that got them over the line. What really incensed them was that the principle of people working without being paid anything at all was being overwritten. This fundamental principle—

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