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

My question again is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister confirm whether the official name of his industrial relations legislation is still Work Choices or not? Does the Prime Minister still stand by his statement to parliament in March this year that working families in Australia have never been better off?

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

The relevant piece of legislation is called the Workplace Relations Act. Sometimes the expression ‘Work Choices’ is used. What matters is inside; what matters is the substance. You may, for example, call yourself a fiscal conservative, but you may not in reality be a fiscal conservative. You may say that you believe in careful public finance. One of the things I was taught by my parents as a child was always to look behind the cover, never take too much notice of the cover.

I see this book called ‘I am a fiscal conservative’ and I start reading it: ‘I am a fiscal conservative because my party left a $96 billion national debt. I am a fiscal conservative because my colleagues and I opposed every attempt by the next government to get rid of that debt. I am a fiscal conservative because I opposed taxation reform. I am a fiscal conservative because I opposed industrial relations reform.’ You can call it workplace relations reform; you can call it Work Choices; you can call it IR, but we all know what he opposed. We all know that if the Leader of the Opposition becomes Prime Minister he will re-establish union control over every workplace in this country. We all know that, if he becomes Prime Minister, he will bring back the burden of unfair dismissal laws. Whether you call it Work Choices or whether you call it—

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Danby interjecting

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

The member for Melbourne Ports is warned!

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

it will be union domination. There won’t be any choice. You will simply be burdened again with the dominance of collective agreements. Individual contracts will be gone; AWAs will be gone; unfair dismissal laws will be back; and by reversing this monumental reform a future Labor government would put at risk the great economic prosperity that this country now rightly enjoys.