Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Very briefly, in relation to job security for our fellow Australians, can I just remind the honourable senator that when her government had control over the levers of the economy over one million of our fellow Australians were on the social scrapheap of unemployment. Today, from a high of over 10 per cent, we have halved that figure. The Australians who have benefited from our policies fully understand that the reason they have a job and job security today is because of our policies.

In relation to the specifics of the matter raised by the honourable senator, can I just remind her that every week 40,000 people change their jobs in this country; 12,000 of them do so on an involuntary basis. That was the way it was under the regime that Mr Beazley embraced. When the Australian Labor Party and the ACTU trot out the odd example—as they have done and will continue to do—of people being dismissed, it is just part and parcel of those 12,000 who were being dismissed in any event on a weekly basis for a whole range of reasons—such as because business was not going well, because people were closing down their businesses or because people were unsatisfactory in the workplace, thus prejudicing not only the workplace but also the other employees’ job security in that workplace. Sometimes these tough decisions have to be made.

In relation to job security, I would invite those opposite to also think and talk about jobs growth. There is no doubt, from survey after survey and study after study, that if we got rid of these unfair dismissal laws we would see a growth in employment. That is most welcomed by those who still want to enter the workforce and are unable to do so—or were unable to do so because of the jobs block of the unfair dismissal laws.