Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is clear now, given the vote yesterday, that on 1 July we will have millionaires getting a $16,400 tax cut, yet on the next day workers in this country will lose money. They will lose money because the Prime Minister and this government refuse to quash an order of the commission that is going to mean 700,000 workers in this country will be worse off. Those are the priorities of this government—tax cuts for millionaires and pay cuts for workers. That is all those opposite care about—their mates.

The reality is that we know what the Prime Minister's views are, because we saw them when he debated Work Choices. Here he comes into the chamber now—the defender of Work Choices. When he was debating that, the Prime Minister said: "You have to free the market to do its work and let the cost of setting the clearing price, be it for labour or loaves of bread, be as low as possible.' This Prime Minister thinks wages should be as low as possible. That is why yesterday in this place the Prime Minister and the government voted against bringing on a bill that will quash an order to stop the cutting of penalty rates in this country. We know that the lot of them—65 members and senators of the Liberal Party—are on the record as saying they want to cut or abolish penalty rates in this country. It is an absolute shame. They should reconsider their position and defend workers for once in their life. (Time expired)