Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry, representing the Minister for Jobs and Innovation. Will the minister outline to the House the results of the government's unrelenting focus on supporting the creation of more jobs in our economy, including in my electorate of Corangamite? Is the minister aware of any other approaches?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for her question. This government has created over a million new jobs in the last 4½ years—five months ahead of the promise we took to the 2013 election. It is a remarkable achievement. In places like Corangamite, which the member represents—I visited there last Friday—a firm called Fibre Tech, which is in the defence industry area, is benefiting from the decisions this government is making in the largest mobilisation of our defence and defence industry in our peacetime history, driving jobs, innovation and technology that are helping the economy to create those over one million jobs, five months ahead of schedule.

This achievement is very much placed at risk by the Leader of the Opposition's secret agreement with the CFMEU. The Leader of the Opposition has a secret agreement with the CFMEU, which he has refused to reveal to the Australian public. It is his responsibility to release that secret agreement so Australians can see what the Leader of the Opposition has promised John Setka and the CFMEU in exchange for their support. We know that John Setka only on the weekend said on Sky News that unions should operate outside the law. Remarkably, as an aside he also said that he didn't trust the Leader of the Opposition either. You'd think a person with a secret agreement with the Leader of the Opposition, who has given $2.5 million in donations to the Labor Party since the Leader of the Opposition has been in that role, would have some ounce of trust for the Leader of the Opposition, but even he, along with the rest of the Australian public, doesn't trust this Leader of the Opposition. Peter Beattie said on the weekend that the Labor Party should not take donations from the CFMEU. Bob Hawke said that, if he were leader of the Labor Party, he would expel the CFMEU from the ALP like he did with the BLF. This Leader of the Opposition is placing that jobs growth at risk because he insists on bringing in the CFMEU on all major decisions made by the Labor Party. He owes it to the Australian public to release the secret agreement he has with the CFMEU. It's time the Leader of the Opposition came clean with the Australian people and told them exactly what he has promised John Setka—a man who has had 59 convictions for civil and criminal offences over the last few years—and the CFMEU in exchange for the power that they've given him within the Labor Party.