Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education representing the Minister for Employment. Will the minister explain how the government is supporting the rights of both employers and employees in the workplace? Who can workers rely on to stand by them in uncertain times?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We will have some silence!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can tell the member for Pearce that today the House of Representatives passed—

Mr Conroy interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Charlton is warned.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

the latest changes to the Fair Work Act, which will rebalance the power relationship in the workplace back to the worker and the employer and away from the union bosses, who have been using the Fair Work Act to intimidate and control, in particular, on greenfields developments. So today we passed that legislation. It will now go to the Senate. It is part of a suite of reforms that the government has introduced over the last 12 months, and will introduce into the future, to protect the rights of workers and also the rights of employers. Whether it is the Registered Organisations Commission, the royal commission into union corporation and thuggery or bringing back a tough cop on the industrial beat for the Australian Building and Construction Commission, all of these changes are designed to build jobs, strengthen the economy and protect the rights of workers and employers. Honest union bosses are in favour of the changes that we are making, because they recognise that we need strong businesses in order to create jobs and build a strong economy. We need a strong economy to protect Australia in uncertain times. So in these uncertain times workers can trust the coalition to deliver protection for their rights, jobs and growth.

I am asked by the member for Pearce about who workers can trust. I can tell you, they cannot trust the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition, when he was the minister for industrial relations in the previous government, was the one who opened the door to the union bosses to come back in and start trying to control businesses. But people knew that they could not trust the Leader of the Opposition. Unfortunately in Paul Kelly's book yesterday, which I have had the chance to read, it was revealed on page 465 that the distrust between Rudd and Shorten was: ' … intense and enduring. The Gillard camp was contemptuous of Shorten, considering him 'weak and duplicitous'. So there was obviously a bright spark in the Gillard camp.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Chifley will desist.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In an otherwise dark pit of ignorance, there was a bright spark, a bright moment—one brief, shining moment for the Gillard camp. They recognised that the Leader of the Opposition was weak and duplicitous. Kelly went on to say:

Neither side trusted him and neither side revised its view.

So if his own side does not trust him—if the Rudd and Gillard camps could not trust him; if his own caucus did not trust him—why should the Australian people trust him? Why should the Australian people trust a man who is not trusted by his own mates in the caucus?