Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation and Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, why are more Australians losing their jobs since the Rudd government came to office?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am always pleased when those opposite raise the question of the conditions of our workforce and those conditions under which our employees in Australia actually work, because it goes to the heart of the industrial relations system which those opposite bequeathed to those in the Australian workforce after their period in office. If you go down to some basic facts and figures concerning the impact of Work Choices, there was a sample which was undertaken when the previous government was in office, between April and October 2006. Eighty-nine per cent of those AWAs removed at least one award condition that the previous government’s advertising said had been protected; 31 per cent of those AWAs took away rest breaks; 49 per cent took away overtime loadings; 63 per cent removed incentive based payments and bonuses; 65 per cent removed penalty rates; and 70 per cent took away shiftwork loadings.

When we are dealing with the challenges of the overall economy and its future direction, first and foremost is responsible economic management to ensure that we are putting in place the right economic conditions for the future to make sure that we can continue to generate economic growth. That is the first responsibility. Secondly, that flows through also to the employment challenges facing this economy and other economies around the world. These are tough challenges which small businesses and the rest of the economy are now facing off the back of both international challenges from the global economy and a high-interest-rate regime which this government and the country inherited from those opposite. But, thirdly, looking at the future and the impact of the economy on individual working families, let no-one in this parliament and no-one in this country forget precisely what set of industrial relations working conditions those in Australia had to live under with those opposite. That is why this government has, through its first instrument of legislation, sought to begin the process of rolling back exactly the set of industrial relations arrangements they had in this country: unfair, unacceptable and un-Australian.