Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given today by the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. It is clear to me, having listened to the answers given today by the minister, that there may be some truth in the allegations made by the President of the HR Nicholls Society about the Howard government.

If you believe the President of the HR Nicholls Society, the Howard government is engaged in a Soviet-style attack on the freedom of Australians. This is ironic because, just yesterday, Senator Abetz accused Senator Marshall of asking a question containing a notion of the old Marxist concept of class conflict. The Howard government likes to talk about how its so-called Work Choices regime is ‘simple, flexible and fair’. But when you look at the detail of the regulations the government released yesterday, you can see why the HR Nicholls Society is so convinced that Work Choices is a Soviet-style sham.

I know that Senator Abetz would not like to take my word for it, so I have some references for him. On 26 March 2006, on the Inside Business program on the ABC, Ray Evans, President of the HR Nicholls Society, said this about the government’s so-called Work Choices regime—and I am sure that Senator Brandis will be tickled pink to hear it:

It’s rather like going back to the old Soviet system of command and control where every economic decision has to go back to some central authority and get ticked off.

He went on to say:

I don’t believe the Howard Government is really that keen on freedom. This new legislation is all about regulation.

How about that? According to the President of the HR Nicholls Society, the Howard government is obsessed with regulation, opposes freedom, and wants to instil a Soviet system of command and control in Australian society.