Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and International Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. This is likely to be the last question from the opposition before Christmas and before we all return to our electorates to be with our families. At this time when we are all looking forward to spending time with our families, how is it, Prime Minister, that as the party for family values you have brought in new industrial relations legislation which makes it harder and harder for families during the festive season to spend time with each other?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After that, I am tempted to extend question time. I have two answers to that. The first answer is that the claim made by the Leader of the Opposition is ludicrous, wrong and completely unsupported by the facts. For example, for the first time, the federal Workplace Relations Act provides for a maximum of 38 ordinary hours of work per week. For the first time, the federal Workplace Relations Act provides for four weeks annual leave. For the first time, the federal Workplace Relations Act provides for 10 days personal carers leave. For the first time, the federal Workplace Relations Act provides two days paid compassionate leave per occasion. The federal Workplace Relations Act provides in law for 52 weeks of unpaid parental leave. In other words, Mr Speaker, the list goes on.

Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aviation and Transport Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Bevis interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Brisbane is on thin ice!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is based on a false premise. It goes deeper than that. This Christmas, Australians will enjoy—and this means enhanced enjoyment for many Australian families—the lowest level of unemployment in 30 years. The Leader of the Opposition says to me—through you always, Mr Speaker—‘How can the Prime Minister claim to lead a party of family values when et cetera, et cetera, et cetera is the case?’ I might rhetorically reply and say: how can the Leader of the Opposition lead a party that presided over more than a million families not having a breadwinner in 1992? How can the Leader of the Opposition live with leading a political party that in 13 years drove the level of real wages down by 1.7 per cent? How can he live with leading a political party that saw hundreds of thousands of Australian children without either parent having a paid job? How can he claim to have at heart the interests of Australian families when he supports returning them to policies that will condemn this country to lower growth and lesser prosperity?

As we all know, at Christmas the most important thing we do—for those whose values suggest it—is to enjoy the spirituality of the occasion and remember what it commemorates and the contribution to the world that the birth of that remarkable man represents. To millions of Australians, that is the great significance of Christmas. That is what gives Christmas its special place and its special nobility. Money is not everything at Christmas but, in order to ensure that the children of Australia enjoy Christmas to the greatest possible extent, their parents need to have jobs. Without jobs, they cannot afford to give them the Christmas they wanted. I am proud to lead a government that will go to this Christmas with the lowest level of unemployment in 30 years—more Australians in jobs and able to afford Christmas presents for their children than ever before; more ordinary Australians able to enjoy the joys of Christmas. That is what I am proud of. I can live with that, because it is the fruits of 10½ years hard work for the people of this great country.

Mr Speaker, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.