Sharryn Jackson (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the Minister for Social Inclusion and the Deputy Prime Minister. Yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister provided details on how the government was delivering on its election promise to replace the Howard government’s Work Choices with a fairer, simpler workplace relations system. Will the Deputy Prime Minister advise the House on the response to this announcement? And will the Deputy Prime Minister advise the House on progress in processing employment agreements?

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

I thank the member for Hasluck for her question. Of course, she chairs the House of Representatives committee that is conducting an inquiry into pay equity. As a result she would be well aware that the workers who suffered the worst under Work Choices, as the statistics undoubtedly show, were women workers—rip-offs of women workers, working Australians, that were endorsed by the Liberal Party, by the Leader of the Opposition and by every member of the Howard government, and that are still endorsed by those people.

Apart from their endorsements of the rip-offs of working Australians, of course, they endorsed a shambolic system that was bound up in red tape. The member for Hasluck has asked me to provide an update to the House on the question of the processing of employment agreements. I am pleased to do so, because Work Choices was bad for Australian workers, enabling them to be ripped off, and bad for business, which had to intersect with a red-tape nightmare. As a result of changes that the Howard government made to Work Choices last year, the Workplace Authority started with a backlog of 54,000 agreements—54,000 agreements sitting in a ginormous pile, unable to be processed because of the shambles and red tape of the Howard government under Work Choices. Small businesses and big businesses—businesses that employ people—were waiting desperately for an answer but, because of the shambles of the Howard government and its Work Choices laws, they could not get one. That queue blew out to more than 100,000. It fell to this government to clean up the mess that the Liberal Party created for business with this huge backlog.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hockey interjecting

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

I know that the member for North Sydney believes in Work Choices. He defends Work Choices every day. He did it every day in government at this dispatch box, and he is doing it now. He is doing his defence of Work Choices. Maybe the member for North Sydney, in defending Work Choices, might like to defend the shambles that happened under his administration, which needed to be resolved by this government.

I am pleased to report to the House that we are resolving the Liberal shambles. Of the 337,000 agreements lodged under the previous government’s so-called fairness test some 281,000 have now been finalised and 15,500 are back with employers for them to provide further information or amendment to meet the requirements of the act. So the Liberal Party that said to the Australian people, ‘You should be able to be ripped off at work’ also said to Australian employers, ‘Here is a mountain of red tape to tie you up in.’ We are fixing both.

I am asked about responses to my announcement yesterday about further details of Labor’s Forward with Fairness plans to ensure that Australian working people get treated with fairness while businesses are able to get on with the job with a simple workplace relations system. I am pleased to advise the House that there has been a positive reaction to this announcement. For example, the National Farmers Federation gave an endorsement to the government’s Fair Dismissal Code, which is showing a new way to balance fairness at work for working Australians with the needs of small business. The National Farmers Federation said of the Fair Dismissal Code—

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tell them about the Telstra announcement!

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

I know that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition cannot stand it when people are not engaging in Work Choices and industrial relations extremism, but she might like to show some simple respect to the National Farmers Federation. I am trying to read their words.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about the 800 Telstra workers sacked today?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

800 jobs slashed today!

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Truss interjecting

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

Order! Members on my left! Leader of the Nats!

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

Obviously she does not want to listen to the National Farmers Federation. The National Party might want to think about that. But the National Farmers Federation said that the government’s code is ‘striking a sensible, practical balance for employers and employees’. And the endorsements did not stop there. The Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia’s CEO, Mr Tony Steven, said about the fair dismissal code that it is providing ‘a simple checklist to follow’ and he congratulated the government on this achievement. The Australian Industry Group welcomed the ‘positive progress’ that the government has made in developing the new workplace relations laws. Here we have a Liberal Party that professes a concern about jobs—maybe it wants to listen to the organisations that represent people who create jobs and reflect on what they have said.

What we know from yesterday’s reaction to the government’s announcement on Forward with Fairness is that the government is getting rid of Work Choices and going on with Forward with Fairness. There are positive reactions from the business community to Forward with Fairness. The only people who support Work Choices in this nation are the industrial relations extremists sitting over there as members of the Liberal Party. We are asking them, despite their extremism, despite their love of Work Choices, to actually let the government get on with the job and deliver what the Australian people voted for. Business has had a positive reaction to that. It is time that the Liberal Party actually listened to the people who create jobs instead of just screaming abuse out.