Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her immediate ban on live cattle exports in response to Bob Brown and the Greens in June—

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

Order! Order!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and I contrast that with the 48 hours of airport chaos that resulted from her dithering on Saturday. I ask: why is this Prime Minister more concerned to pander to the Greens than she is to protect the Australian travelling public?

Opposition members: Hear, hear!

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

Order! The House will come to order. The Prime Minister has the call. The Prime Minister.

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

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I must admit I did commence laughing at the start of it, because I thought the Leader of the Opposition was moving off Qantas! And I would have known why if he was moving off Qantas today—because, having spent all of that time yesterday yelling and screaming for answers about who knew what when, what happens today? The Leader of the Opposition twice refused to answer a question about when he knew that Qantas was going to lock its workers out and ground the planes—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! The House will come to order!

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

When did the Leader of the Opposition know?

Honourable members interjecting—

When did he know that tens of thousands of passengers were going to be stranded? When did he know the workers were going to be locked out?

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! The Prime Minister will resume her seat. The House will settle down. The Prime Minister has the call. She will be heard in silence. The Prime Minister.

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

I am very happy to answer the Leader of the Opposition's question because I think all the facts, every fact, about this dispute should be before the Australian people—every fact about contact with Qantas, every fact about who knew what when. The Leader of the Opposition might like to apply to himself the same standard that he is always so eager to apply to others—in here yesterday, screaming at the top of his voice for answers and, today, a man stunned into a humbling silence. To the Leader of the Opposition, I say this: what the government did on Saturday was the appropriate conduct—

Mr Morrison interjecting—

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

Order! The member for Cook will leave the chamber for one hour under standing order 94(a).

The member for Cook then left the chamber.

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

for a government that understands that the workplace relations system is about balance. It is about treating the interests of employers and employees in balance. It is about making sure that there is fairness for all. It is about making sure that there is not industrial disruption that threatens the national interest. That is the approach of the government and that is the approach we took. Consequently, we moved on Saturday afternoon to bring this dispute to an end, and it was at an end by yesterday afternoon, with planes back in the sky—a balanced approach to the interests of employers and employees, always guided by what is in the interests of the national economy and the travelling public.

But what has amazed me in the course of the last few days is that in these circumstances—with Qantas having decided on Saturday to dramatically escalate this dispute, to engage in a lockout of its workforce, to ground planes with no appropriate notice to the travelling public so that tens of thousands of people were stranded away from home, unable to get to work, unable to get back to their loved ones—the Leader of the Opposition has not uttered one word of criticism of Qantas, not one word of criticism of Qantas after it stranded tens of thousands of passengers. We know why that is—well, we only know part of why that is—because the opposition leader's attitude towards industrial relations is to give the employers everything they want every time and smash into the workers. That was what Work Choices was about. What we do not quite know is all of the details about the Leader of the Opposition's interactions with Qantas, because he is now engaged in a cover-up of that. I say to the Leader of the Opposition that it is time he came clean with the Australian public. The tens of thousands of members of the Australian public who were stranded would be interested to know what the Leader of the Opposition knew and when he knew it.

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Order! To the many people who are talking, I am going to interrupt you. We are running question time and the member for Banks has been standing patiently asking for the call.

Mr Hockey interjecting—

In comparison between the member for Banks and the member for North Sydney, I know who has been the much luckier. The member for North Sydney, if he wishes to remain in question time, should sit there quietly.

Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister inform the House how Fair Work Australia is resolving the industrial action involving Qantas, and how has the government taken decisive action in this matter?

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

I thank the member for Banks for his question. I know that he has always been interested in making sure that there are appropriate industrial rules so that both employers and employees can work together in balanced, harmonious and productive workplaces. That has always been the attitude of the Labor Party: to make sure that employers, employees and trade unions can work together in the interests of productivity and the national economy.

Mr Hartsuyker interjecting—

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

The member for Cowper is warned!

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

I am asked by the member for Banks about the Qantas dispute, and to the member for Banks I would say that in the early hours of Monday morning Fair Work Australia, the industrial umpire which we empowered under the Fair Work Act, made the appropriate order to end the damaging disputation in Qantas, particularly the grounding of its fleet, caused by the decision of Qantas on Saturday. It was an extreme decision to lock out their workers and to ground their fleet, stranding tens of thousands of Australians in places away from home and around the world without sufficient notice to make alternative arrangements.

Fair Work Australia did what it should do under the Fair Work Act to end that disputation. We are a nation which, in the past, has seen lockouts of employees persist for months but Fair Work Australia, seized of the matter during Saturday as a result of the government's application to Fair Work Australia, immediately commenced to work and planes were back in the sky on Monday afternoon as a result of the government's application and the decision of Fair Work Australia.

I am aware that during the last few days there has been criticism of the Fair Work Act and commentary about its provisions. To those who raise that criticism I say that if people want to have a debate on workplace relations in this parliament, bring it on. Bring it on, because we do know that the opposition wants to change the Fair Work Act and go back to Work Choices. If that is the debate of the day then bring it on. Let me make it clear where we will stand in that debate and what principles will guide us, because you have seen it on display during the Qantas dispute.

We will always act in the interests of the Australian public, as we acted in the interests of the travelling public during the Qantas dispute. We will always act in the interests of the national economy because there is nothing more important to this country than the prosperity and opportunity that a strong national economy can provide. We will always act with balance and fairness to the rights of working people, to make sure that they can be appropriately represented at work. That is why we have put the safety net back after the Liberal Party took it away, that is why we have an industrial umpire with powers to act and that is why we have a fair bargaining system.

I do note that there are others in this debate who are bringing a different set of values, most particularly, the Leader of the Opposition, who has not uttered one word of criticism of Qantas for taking this industrial action—not one word.

Mr Simpkins interjecting—

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

Order! The member for Cowan is warned!

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

Can you imagine what the Leader of the Opposition would have said if working people had marched away from work and had caused the grounding of flights around the nation? If it had been employees who had done that, imagine what the Leader of the Opposition would have said. But there was not one word of criticism of Qantas—not one word—because the Liberal Party are bringing to this their traditional bias against working people. It has been on display over the last 48 hours, just like it was on display during the days of Work Choices. (Time expired)

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to her government's embarrassing record—its failure to put pink batts in roofs without starting fires; its failure to build school halls without rip-off after rip-off; its panicked handling of the live cattle exports; its managing of the biggest budget deficit in our history, its failure to protect Australia's borders and the introduction of the world's only economy-wide carbon tax, which it promised would never happen. I ask: given the Prime Minister's failure to act on Saturday to prevent 48 hours of avoidable chaos, how can she expect the Australian people to have any faith whatsoever in this divided and directionless government?

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

To the Leader of the Opposition I say, gee, it is getting a bit embarrassing for you now, isn't it? There he is, with his chants of negativity. He comes in here every day and he has clipped together his little negative slogans. He has done that with a sense of desperation today because he is in cover-up mode. He does not want to be asked when he knew what he knew about Qantas. Did he know an hour before the planes were grounded? Did he know 24 hours before the planes were grounded? Did he know 48 hours before the planes were grounded? Did he ring up Qantas and suggest the planes should be grounded? Who knows what role the Leader of the Opposition played in this dispute, because he is in cover-up mode, having screamed for the truth yesterday? He wanted to know every word, every telephone call, every piece of legal advice and what was said to every minister in every meeting. He screamed for the truth. He yelled for the truth. He wanted the truth. Then, confronted with questions about his role today, he was stunningly silent. So, in the midst of that stunning silence, he has obviously gone to the 'break glass in case of emergency', and he has gone and got all of his old negative slogans out and knitted them together as a question. It is truly pathetic.

Let me say this to the Leader of the Opposition: this government will continue to do the following things. We will continue to have the Fair Work system; the Leader of the Opposition believes in Work Choices. We will continue to ensure that there is a strong national economy that works in the interests of all; the Leader of the Opposition wants the miners to pay less tax—he wants to take money off other people and make the miners pay less tax. We will ensure that Australians have the benefit of new technology, the National Broadband Network; the Leader of the Opposition wants to rip it out of the ground. We will ensure that Australians have a clean energy future at the lowest possible price; just as the Leader of the Opposition wants to give money to big miners, he wants to take money off Australian families and give it to big polluters. We will ensure that we continue to reform and invest in our education system; the Leader of the Opposition is committed to ripping money out of schools and apprenticeships. We will continue to ensure that we invest in the future of Australian health; the Leader of the Opposition is a man whose only achievement as health minister in this nation was taking a billion dollars out of hospitals. We will continue to ensure that working people in this country can see an economy that is being managed in their interests and that they are receiving the services that families need; the Leader of the Opposition would never manage the economy in their interests—we can tell that from his conduct over the last few days, and certainly he is dedicated to ripping away the services that they need. We will ensure that the budget comes to surplus next year; the Leader of the Opposition sits there with his $70 billion black hole, slashing services to working families.

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It was an attempt at distraction, but the question still remains for the Leader of the Opposition to answer: when did he first know Qantas was grounding its fleet, and why didn't he answer the questions about it at his press conference? Why not? There is no point yelling about it now. Go out and tell the truth.