Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak on the one-year anniversary of the introduction of Work Choices. We are told that this has been so good for workers, they have just been so much better off and it is the best thing that has ever happened to them. Wouldn’t you think we would have had a cake? Wouldn’t you think we would have had a celebration given that this is so good for workers?

The government will not let the truth come out. They have stopped the Office of the Employment Advocate from collecting the statistics that show that workers are worse off. There is a Treasury paper that indicates the future directions and new changes that they will put in for Work Choices legislation. What did they do? They have blacked it out. The news is so good for the workers—they are so much better off and they have never had it so good—but we cannot tell them what we are going to do in the future. We have blacked it out. I have never seen a good news story that is so heavily censored.

The big point I want to make is about Spotlight employees. I raised this in the parliament and the Prime Minister said, ‘Look, for these workers, it is a lot better going from unemployment to employment.’ I agree with him. He said, ‘These 38 workers are going to be $338 better off.’ What a lie! He knew at that time that they were not going into full-time employment. All they were being offered was casual employment, and part-time employment to boot. For getting rid of overtime, shift allowances and penalty rates, those 38 Mount Druitt employees got an extra 2c an hour. That is what stinks.

Kay Elson (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mrs Elson interjecting

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know because I spoke to the workers. One lives as a neighbour around the corner from me.

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

Member for Chifley, please direct your comments through the chair, not across the chamber.

Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No problem, but I am being subjected to the odd interjection too. I am trying to tell the truth. I want the facts to be revealed. It is the government that is covering up. It is covering up the statistics because it knows that, far from having it so good, there are lots of workers who have never had it so bad. People who are not directly affected by employment—that is, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles—are concerned about their relatives and the younger generation, and they have every right to be with this government.