Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister agree with remarks made by the Liberal candidate for Goulburn, Pru Goward, that she cannot deny that Work Choices was a factor in the recent election, that working people were telling her that their shift loadings were being cut and that their incomes were going down?

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

Order! In calling the Prime Minister, I note that the question seemed to be asking for an opinion. But the Prime Minister may choose to answer the question.

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

I am very happy to answer a question on the subject matter that the leader has raised—that is, the value of Work Choices to Australia’s economic future and the relevance of Work Choices in the recent New South Wales election campaign. We introduced Work Choices as a major contribution to the further strengthening of the Australian economy. Whatever the Leader of the Opposition or the deputy leader may say about Work Choices, the truth is that if this reform is reversed it will be the first time in 25 years that a major economic reform in this country has been reversed. It would be akin to reimposing a controlled exchange rate, reintroducing tariff protection or dismantling taxation reform. It would signal not only to the Australian people but also to the rest of the world that this country had downed tools on economic reform. The contribution that Work Choices makes to the future strengthening of the Australian economy is undoubted, and that is why the government remains committed to Work Choices.

As far as the New South Wales election is concerned, the evidence is pretty mixed. I do not know what was said to an individual candidate in a particular electorate; I am not in a position to know that. But I am in a position to observe that the National Party secured its greatest vote ever in the city of Broken Hill, which is a quintessential union town. I also note with some interest that there was an average nine per cent swing against the Labor Party in the Hunter Valley. Whilst messages out of the state election are being referred to, perhaps the member for Kingsford Smith might find a message in the fact that the member named Hunter, who is the member for Lake Macquarie, is in danger of losing his seat. Maybe the member for Kingsford Smith should have a look at the anti-coalmining remarks of the Labor member for Lake Macquarie, who is in danger of losing his seat.

Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister update the House on how workplace reforms have helped strengthen the Australian economy? Are there any threats to these reforms?

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

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of the introduction of Work Choices, and I am pleased to inform the House that since Work Choices was introduced over 263,000 new jobs have been created. It makes something of a mockery of remarks made by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition outside parliament today to the effect that there had not been jobs created as a result of Work Choices. Secondly, real wages—that is, the wages that you receive over and above inflation—have risen by 1.5 per cent, taking to 19.7 per cent the real wage rises that have occurred under this government, compared with the regression in real wages which occurred under the previous Labor government. The ABS has recorded industrial disputes at the lowest level ever recorded, indeed, since statistics began to be collected in 1913.

In the face of all of this, the trade union movement of Australia is, not unnaturally, waging a ferocious campaign. It is spending an estimated $30 million on this campaign, no doubt encouraged by the 70 per cent of the opposition frontbench who are former trade union officials and no doubt encouraged by the member for Batman, the member for Hotham and the member for Throsby. They are shortly to be joined by the National Secretary of the AWU and in the Senate by Senator Doug Cameron—and so the list goes on. The member for Charlton made it clear on radio this morning that if Mr Combet replaced her then that would be another illustration of independent voices in the federal parliamentary Labor caucus disappearing.

The union movement are angry about Work Choices not because they care about the working conditions of men and women in this country. The union bosses are worried about Work Choices because they want to re-establish union power over Australia’s industrial relations system. Let me quote again, as I did last week, from an article written by Paul Kelly in the Australian, which was otherwise praiseworthy of the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Kelly had this to say:

Rudd is embarked on one of the most audacious political scams in Australian history: seeking to resurrect trade union power and privileges by abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements, restoring union access to workplaces, saving the award system and entrenching collective union power in the name of work-life balance and family values.

The union movement are against Work Choices because they want to reclaim their control of the industrial relations system in this country. It has nothing to do with the rights and the interests of working people in this country. Working families in Australia have never been better off. We have a 30-year low in unemployment. We have had a massive rise in real wages. We have had historically low industrial disputes. In other words, the individual worker is doing well under this government. What is not doing well under this government is the collective called union bosses, and that is why the union movement are hurling a $30 million campaign against the federal coalition government.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and refers to the rights and interests of working families. I refer to the analysis of Australian workplace agreements lodged with the Employment Advocate last year that showed that 100 per cent of these unfair Australian workplace agreements had excluded one protected award condition; 63 per cent of them had removed penalty rates; and 52 per cent had removed shift loadings. Minister, didn’t the government cease this analysis because it showed Australian workplace agreements were stripping away the take-home pay and working conditions of Australians?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I reject the analysis provided by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, and the reason I reject it is that the analysis failed to take into account other benefits that have flowed, particularly to families, particularly to women and particularly to young people, out of the new regime. It is very hard to put an economic benefit on the value of job-sharing for women. It is very hard to put an economic benefit on the value of shift-sharing for women. It is very hard to put an economic benefit on the value of bringing more long-term unemployed people into the workplace than ever before, and the Labor Party is constantly opposing initiatives that help those most vulnerable in the community. None of our initiatives has had a greater impact on those most vulnerable than our changes to the industrial relations regime. The reason why, as the OECD says, was that the punitive laws of the Labor Party most disadvantaged women and young people who had been out of work for long periods of time.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Families and Community Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Macklin interjecting

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

The member for Jagajaga is warned!

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They do not like to hear it. They do not like to hear that real wages in the last 12 months have gone up more than under 13 years of Labor. They do not like to hear that 263,000 new jobs have been created in the last 12 months; nearly 90 per cent of those jobs are full time. They do not like to hear that the unemployment rate is 4.6 per cent, at near record lows. They do not like to hear that the level of industrial disputation in Australia today is at its lowest level since records were first kept in 1913. They do not like to hear that the workers are better off under our laws than they would be under the Labor Party.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services. Would the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House how the government’s workplace relations polices are benefiting regional areas, in particular my electorate of Maranoa; and how are regional Australians responding?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Maranoa for his question. The first and obvious answer to the question is that small business people throughout regional Australia are delighted with the changes that we have made under our workplace policy reforms in terms of getting rid of the unfair dismissal laws that were introduced by the former Labor government in this country that were an absolute handbrake on employment opportunities for young people across regional Australia. I suspect that a lot of the 263,000 jobs that have been created in the economy over the last 12 months since Work Choices was introduced have come from the small business sector and small business in regional Australia.

It goes without saying that the policies we have put in place over a number of years, the reforms we have made to the Australian economy in terms of making it more competitive and more efficient, have encouraged greater employment opportunities across the country, particularly in regional Australia. As the Prime Minister just indicated a while ago, we are experiencing the lowest level of unemployment in Australia in 30 years: 4.6 per cent unemployment in the Australian economy; real wages have grown by 17.9 per cent; and the lowest level of industrial disputes on record at a time when there is a coalition government in power in Canberra. The most graphic of all examples is the creation of new jobs in the economy since Work Choices began 12 months ago—263,000 new jobs—and a lot of them have been generated in small business where we got rid of the burden of those unfair dismissal laws that were introduced by Laurie Brereton in the former Labor government.

The member for Maranoa asked about regional Australia. In regional Australia job growth has continued in spite of the drought: 63 per cent of regional areas recorded a drop in unemployment in the past 12 months notwithstanding the effects of drought; 63 per cent increased employment in regional Australia; and 64 per cent of regional areas have an unemployment rate of less than five per cent compared to 16 per cent under the former Labor government. That is what is happening in regional Australia because there is more flexibility in the way people want to engage in the workplace, so there are more jobs in regional Australia and that means more security for working families in regional Australia.

The Labor Party and the union movement are running a scare campaign on Work Choices and they are also running it around regional Australia. We have seen the orange signs up everywhere, and they are running it hard. The union movement is spending a fortune of their members’ money to try and save their own necks, and many would comment that it is working.

I will give a couple of examples of what regional Australians are saying about the policies in Work Choices. I have only to remind those opposite of the result in the seat of Murray-Darling—the old bastion of the Labor Party and the union movement in Broken Hill. For the first time in history at a state level, Murray-Darling is now represented by a member of the coalition and not a member of the Labor Party. John Williams, the Nationals candidate, has done a fantastic job in Broken Hill. He is from Broken Hill. He lives in Broken Hill.

But there is more. If you go back, the same campaign was run in the Queensland election last year, and we won the seat of Bundaberg for the first time in a hundred years. In Victoria last year, when the same campaign was run, for the first time we won the seat of Morwell in the Latrobe Valley from the Labor Party. The Labor Party can make all the claims they like, but people in regional Australia know who is best placed to deliver strong economic growth and create job opportunities in regional Australia.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister direct the Office of the Employment Advocate to recommence the analysis of Australian workplace agreements and publicly release the findings?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No.