Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to comments made by his minister for small business this morning on ABC News, and I quote: ‘We reckon we have the balance right.’ Does the Prime Minister agree that the balance is right when small business—

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Dr Emerson interjecting

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about those unemployed people in your seat?

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

Order! Those on my right will come to order. The member for Ryan has the call.

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to ask the question in Chinese, if it is necessary. Does the Prime Minister—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Order! We might come to order and allow the member for Ryan to ask his question. But to ask the question in Mandarin—if I have the pronunciation half right—it is ‘ni kai wanxiao’.

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. For the benefit of the House, I will start again. My question is to the Prime Minister, and I refer the Prime Minister to comments made by his minister for small business this morning on ABC News, where he said, ‘We reckon we have the balance right.’ Does the Prime Minister agree that the balance is right when small business people such as Rosemary in the electorate of Forde, Stuart and Penny in the electorate of Flynn, Chris in the electorate of Moreton, Jenny in the electorate of Leichhardt, John in the electorate of Bonner and Chris and Tiara in the electorate of Longman have all said, in letters, that Labor’s job-destroying industrial relations changes will force up business costs and lead to them cutting jobs?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order as to whether the question is in order. The member for Ryan suggested that all of those people used exactly the same words in letters. Can he clarify that that is the case?

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

In the past there has been an assumption that the member is in the position to vouch that those comments were made. I assume that that is the case. Was the member for Ryan seeking leave to table?

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I asked a question of the Prime Minister. I would like him to answer it.

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

In the past, it has been taken that if the member is willing to vouch that those comments were made that that is the end of the matter. I take it that the member for Ryan is in that position.

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

I thank the member for Ryan for his interesting question. The first part of his question was: do I agree with the minister for small business that he has the balance right? The answer is yes. The second part of my answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows. One of the reasons why the minister and the government have got the balance right is because we believe that all workers should have a right to redundancy. We believe that Work Choices should not be allowed to strip away redundancy entitlements. We believe we have the balance right because we believe that all workers should have the right to be properly compensated for and provided with public holidays, with overtime payments and penalty rates. These things were all stripped away by the legislation which the member for Ryan voted for in the last parliament. He stripped away protections for redundancy payments, overtime payments, penalty rates and public holidays when he voted for Work Choices in the previous parliament.

My point to the member for Ryan and the people he associates with on this matter is simply this: does he support the statement made by the Leader of the Opposition that Work Choices is dead? Does he support the Leader of the Opposition, who said that the government has a mandate to proceed with its implementation of unfair dismissal laws for small business? Does he support that or is he remaining mute and silent on this question? It seems that the position taken by the Leader of the Opposition increasingly swings in the breeze on this.

The member for O’Connor made a very interesting observation at the doors this morning. Basically, it was all about this: the Leader of the Opposition went out there—ahead of the party room, ahead of the member for Higgins—in making these proclamations that Work Choices was dead and that the government had a mandate to proceed with its proposed changes to unfair dismissal laws. That is it in a nutshell. What we have seen, I think, is a very pathetic spectacle in the parliament today: the Leader of the Opposition being reined in not just on climate change, not just on Work Choices and not just, as we have already seen, on economic stimulus strategies, but right across the board. In fact, what we have seen on the part of the opposition is policy development paralysed by the opportunism which arises from its own internal leadership conflict.