Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. I refer the minister to the 257 jobs lost at Riviera Marine in my electorate of Fadden. Can the minister inform the House how many more Australians will lose their jobs over the next 12 months?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Can I express my concern for the individuals and the families caught up in that circumstance. I am sure that as the local member he too is very deeply concerned. On the question of jobs and employment generally, obviously, as the Prime Minister said earlier in question time, we are in a world of global economic uncertainty. We are in a domestic economy where we have had rising interest rates and, yes, that shows. That shows in the real economy and sometimes, tragically, it shows in the form of job losses.

But what I can certainly assure the member is this: one of the things we were elected to do and one of the things we are most certainly committed to doing is to make sure that Australians who find themselves in that situation get treated fairly and decently. I accept that the member is a new member in this House and perhaps he may not know, but under the industrial relations policy of the former government, the Liberal government, under the Work Choices extremism that the Liberal Party brought to this country and still supports, it was always possible for an employee to have their entitlements to redundancy pay ripped away without a cent of compensation. That was the workplace relations policy the Liberal Party took to the last election. It is the one your political party supports.

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The question is: how many Australians are going to lose their job under this government?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The Deputy Prime Minister has responded to the question.