Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. I refer the minister to her statement just now that her right of entry laws are basically going back to what existed between 1988 and 2005. How does the minister reconcile this statement with her Forward with Fairness policy dated August 2007 that existing right of entry laws will be retained?

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

I thank the member for his question, and I am very happy to explain it to him. Forward with Fairness provided that we would keep existing arrangements in relation to right of entry, and let me describe to him what we have kept. We have kept the need to have a permit. We have kept the need to be a fit and proper person to have a permit. We have kept the need to give 24 hours notice of entering premises. We have kept the need for proper conduct, for people to behave properly when they are on premises. All of those rules are the same in the Fair Work Bill as they have been under current law and, indeed, as they were under former law. What the shadow minister may not realise is that Work Choices in particular changed the nature of the relationship between industrial instruments to try to lock people out. What we are saying is that unions must abide by strict criteria: being a fit and proper person, getting a permit, giving 24 hours notice, conducting themselves properly—all of the right of entry rules that were in existence are still in existence in our policy Forward with Fairness. We said we would have those rules; we do have those rules.

The great misrepresentation happening here amongst the Liberal Party is that they are twisting and turning to try to find some excuse to defeat the Fair Work Bill. Why? Not because they are concerned about—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order of relevance. The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations was asked why she had changed from her commitment to leave those—

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

The member for Mackellar will resume her seat. The question was in order and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations is responding to the question.

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

The member for Mackellar might not like the answer, but right of entry rules, permits, fit and proper people, 24 hours notice, conducting yourself properly when you are on the premises—those rules are there in the Fair Work Bill. I know the member for Mackellar is one of the loud and proud Work Choices supporters, and she was dismayed the day that the Leader of the Opposition walked out and said that Work Choices is dead. Of course, the Liberal Party members ever since have been saying, ‘How can we work out how to oppose the Fair Work Bill, to hold faith with Work Choices, without overly humiliating the Leader of the Opposition?’ That is the political problem that confronts them. So to answer that political problem, what they are going to do is misrepresent every provision of this bill, play exactly the same kinds of tricks they played in the lead-up to the last election, pretend to the Australian people that there is some union bogey here, meanwhile asking people to avert their eyes from the fact that Work Choices was about ripping off the least powerful and lowest paid people in our workplaces. It was the 16-year-old kids who suffered under Work Choices. It was the workers with the least bargaining power that suffered under Work Choices.

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

And the person yelling at me now—the member for North Sydney—had at his disposal every piece of information to know that people were getting ripped off. The legacy of Work Choices, as the Liberal Party knows, is that people were ripped off. And you know what? That is what they support and that is what this twisting and turning is about.

Now if they are going to be Work Choices supporters loud and proud, well, Mr Speaker, we will have the debate again about Work Choices. We will have it again in every corner of this country, in every community hall, in every street, in every town, in every factory, in every shop. We will have the debate with the Liberal Party and they can walk into those places and say, ‘We are Work Choices supporters,’ loud and proud. And do you know what is going to happen? They will be repudiated by the Australian community again, which is disgusted by their extremism in workplace relations.

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

Mr Hockey interjecting

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

The member for North Sydney will withdraw!

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

Sorry, Mr Speaker; I withdraw.