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

I have a question for the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister support the whole of the Roy Hill agreement? Does she support the agreement lock, stock and barrel, including the employment of up to 1,700 foreign workers?

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

The Leader of the Opposition is growing strangely obsessed and unable to listen to my words—I am not quite sure why. The Leader of the Opposition, of course, is always opposed to jobs, so when someone talks about Australian jobs first he obviously gets confused. He did not want me to mention Australian jobs first, because they are offensive to him. He did not want me to mention the training of Australians first, because that is obviously offensive to him.

The Roy Hill agreement includes Australian jobs, Indigenous training—

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We know all that; just answer the question.

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

The member for Menzies says, 'We know all that.' He dismisses out of hand more than 6,000 jobs for Australians. That is completely irrelevant to him. He could not care less about employing 6,000 Australians. He could not care less about the training outcomes for 2,000 Australians. He could not care less about the 200 apprentices and trainees. He could not care less about the 100 Indigenous Australians being prepared for work in the construction industry. The member for Menzies might think these are incidental details and not interesting. These are real people's lives, getting an opportunity from the resources boom. The Roy Hill agreement has in it all of these outcomes, as well as the agreement that there will be up to 1,715 foreign workers for the construction phase. So, of course, in total the Roy Hill agreement is about jobs, is about training, is about Indigenous Australians, is about this agreement for up to 1,715 foreign workers and it has my support.

Opposition members interjecting—

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I am going to wrongly attribute that call to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, but I will not ask her to withdraw. Whoever made that comment is skating on very thin ice. The member for Kingston has the call and will be heard in silence.