Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline the impact of Work Choices on working men and women?

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

I thank the member for Kingston for her question. I know she cares about fairness and decency at work, and I know that, like Australians around the country, she was appalled at the Liberal Party’s Work Choices rip-offs. She was appalled that working people had penalty rates ripped off them. She was appalled that working people had redundancy pay ripped off them without a cent of compensation. She was appalled that good workers were dismissed for no reason at all, with no remedy. And she campaigned for the return of fairness and decency at work and the end of Work Choices. The member for Kingston, like other Australians, may have been entitled to think, when the Leader of the Opposition went out to the Australian people and said, ‘Work Choices is dead,’ that he meant it. But, of course, from the weekend, we know that the Leader of the Opposition is so out of touch that he believes the solution, in the middle of a global recession, is to have laws that enable working Australians to lose basic pay and conditions including penalty rates.

People might be wondering to themselves, ‘How on earth did the Leader of the Opposition come to this conclusion—apart from personally being so out of touch?’ Well, he does not have very good advisers amongst his political party and his backbench. Starting with his advisers from the backbench, we have the member for O’Connor, who, clearly, in interjections when the Minister for Housing—

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He wants the marriage vow back!

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

That’s right! When the Minister for Housing was dealing with the question of pay and conditions—

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is about relevance. This is just vindictive nonsense. We need to go back to the substantive question.

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

I will listen carefully to the way in which the Deputy Prime Minister is relating her material to the question.

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

I thank the shadow minister for her turn of phrase, because she is right: Work Choices is vindictive nonsense, and it is just a pity that that is what the Liberal Party stands for. But in coming to this position in support of Work Choices and all of its rip-offs, we have got the advice from the member for O’Connor. He was clearly interjecting, when the Minister for Housing was on her feet, suggesting that it is fine for women workers to be required to work on weekends, and they ought to be grateful for the job, and questions of minimum wages really should not come into it. And he is on the public record as verifying this position, not only in the parliament in interjections but in the media today. I quote from a very illuminating statement from the member for O’Connor as he was walking into Parliament House today. He said:

I made my maiden speech in 1981—

That is quite a long time ago—

on industrial relations and questioned the stupidity in our modern society of penalty rates within the 38-hour parameters, I think it was 40 then, for weekends and evenings—

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Absolutely.

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

‘Absolutely’—thank you, Member for O’Connor. He has been opposed to penalty rates since 1981 and the Liberal Party are basically opposed to penalty rates today because they have embraced Work Choices rip-offs. I thank the member for O’Connor for that verification that, should the Liberal Party ever form government again in this country, penalty rates for workers around the country would be gone. The member for O’Connor has been campaigning for it since 1981, and obviously the Leader of the Opposition has endorsed his position.

When it comes to the question of who advises the Leader of the Opposition on these questions, we have the member for O’Connor. The one thing you would say about the member for O’Connor—there would be quite a few things you could say, but the one thing you would be able to say during the daytime and in a public place—is that at least he is consistent and clear in what he stands for. I will give him that: at least he is consistent and clear.

I would say that that approach stands in stark contrast to the very sloppy approach of the shadow Treasurer. Of course, the shadow Treasurer was the salesperson for Work Choices for the Howard government. He was there, day after day, justifying the rip-offs as they came to light. The shadow Treasurer was the salesperson for Work Choices. But, in what is a really a curiously sloppy performance by the shadow Treasurer, he had a bad week last week. He was away, X-Files style, talking about the G20 leftist conspiracy and that Angela Merkel—he had always had his doubts about her. It led him to muse on the nature of left-wing leadership around the world.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Energy and Resources) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The standing orders are clear about personal reflections—and the minister has made personal reflections on three people now—under standing order 90.

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

Order, the Deputy Prime Minister has the call. She will relate her material to the question.

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

On the question of workplace relations policy and what has caused the Leader of the Opposition to embrace Work Choices, of course, he may well have got some very sloppy advice from the shadow Treasurer. Because as today’s Sydney Morning Herald records, and I quote:

Just days after announcing a vast, left wing conspiracy at the G20 treasurers’ summit, Joe Hockey has himself unwittingly joined an illegal left-wing conspiracy …

He was at a CFMEU press conference talking about industrial action in support of green bans. The article says:

Rubbing shoulders with the assembled trade unionists and environmentalists, Hockey brought conversation to a stop when he asked the union president, Peter McClelland, if the green ban was legal. After a short pause, McClelland reminded the former workplace relations minister some of the finer points of his Work Choices legislation. “No it’s not, and it’s because of your government,” he said.

Apparently the onlookers went all quiet and then began to laugh at Mr Hockey. The quote continues:

“The impression you got is that he was completely unaware that it was illegal,” …

It was another sloppy piece of work by the shadow Treasurer. The shadow Treasurer may not have understood that about Work Choices but what he ought to have known about Work Choices is that it ripped working people off. He endorsed it every step of the way, and the Liberal Party still does.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Hockey interjecting

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

Order, has the Deputy Prime Minister concluded? The member for North Sydney does not have the call.