Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister now admit that his industrial relations changes failed to meet the basic test of providing secure jobs and decent pay? Is this why he had to gut his own bill in the Senate today?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No. The bill—which we continue to seek to see supported, including the measures that the Leader of the Opposition has just referred to—was going to be voted against by the Labor Party. They were opposing the whole bill. They were opposing introducing tougher penalties to deter underpayment of employees. They told us very clearly that they did not want to support these measures. Now they say they do want to support these measures. You know what that sounds like? That sounds like an each-way bet. That sounds like another each-way bet from the Labor Party. They want to oppose it, then they want to support it and then they want to oppose it. It's a game of tennis. What's his next position?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Leader of the Opposition, on a point of order?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, Mr Speaker. 'Each way' is putting up legislation and then moving amendments to gut your own legislation—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's not a point of order.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's what he just did.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister has the call.

Honourable members interjecting—

The Leader of the House.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, that is an abuse of the standing orders. There is no point of order at all. All that is is a guy that's trying to show off to his union bosses who are in the House.

Honourable members interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for McEwen! Members on both sides! The Leader of the House! The Leader of the Opposition, I'm directing this your way: whenever anyone rises on a point of order, they need to state the point of order. I won't put up with frivolous points of order. I also won't put up with—

An honourable member interjecting—

Let me finish! I also won't put up with people complaining about frivolous points of order by making them themselves. I hope that's clear. I think we should just let the Prime Minister answer the question. The Prime Minister.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government sought to bring measures into this parliament that would create more jobs. That's what we sought to do. The Labor Party opposed all the measures, including those they now pretend to support. You can't have an each-way bet on this. That's what this leader of the Labor Party is famous for. We will pursue measures through the parliament, and, on a day when Australians have learnt that there are more jobs now in the Australian economy than there were before the pandemic, we're not going to give up on continuing to create even more jobs, even if the Labor Party is not as passionate about creating jobs as the coalition government is—even though it was this government that saw 1½ million jobs created under the policies that we put in place when we came to government. Those jobs that were lost over the course of the COVID pandemic have now returned. There's more work to do, but we will stand up for jobs each and every day. The Leader of the Labor Party and the Labor Party have demonstrated they're against job creation by opposing policies that support job creation.