Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Minister, didn’t the Minister for Finance and Administration, Senator Nick Minchin, say to the HR Nicholls Society, ‘We do need to seek a mandate from the Australian people at the next election for another wave of industrial relations reform’? Minister, didn’t the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Peter Hendy, say to the HR Nicholls Society that industrial relations reform still has a long way to go? Will the minister rule out further changes to the government’s extreme industrial relations changes if the government is re-elected?

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

We have no plans for further change to the laws.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

I am prepared to rule it out; that is right—absolutely. The reason is this: this is where the Labor Party—

Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms George interjecting

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

The member for Throsby! The minister has the call.

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

have got it so wrong. They predicted when these laws were started that there were going to be mass sackings, that children would not see their parents on Christmas Day and that parents would not be able to afford to buy their children shoes to go to school in. They predicted Armageddon, the end of the world, when these laws were to start a year ago. The reason it did not happen is that our laws were part of the evolution of the modern workplace. Our laws were about responding to the demands of the workers, who wanted flexibility in the workplace, who wanted to be able to engage in job sharing and shift sharing and who wanted to be able to work from home.

Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Byrne interjecting

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

The member for Holt has asked his question.

Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Byrne interjecting

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

The member for Holt is warned!

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

Women wanted to be able to use the internet and the phone at home to undertake some part-time paid work and yet receive appropriate remuneration at the same time. The reason our laws did not bring about a workplace revolution was that they were simply responding to the modern workplace.

At the next election it is the Labor Party promising a workplace revolution. They are the ones going to the electorate to say that they want to go back to the days when the union officials were beating down the doors of every workplace. Only this morning I went to a business in Queanbeyan where a worker, Greg, said explicitly that the fear of the workers is that the unions will come back into the workplace. He said that they were able to negotiate an agreement that was fair to all without the unions being directly involved.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Tanner interjecting

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

The member for Melbourne is warned!

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

We are about the interests of the workers; the Labor Party is about the interests of the union bosses.