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

What those opposite do not understand is that there is a fundamental difference between union rights and workers’ rights. This body is well resourced, with $97 million over four years which funds over 200 workplace inspectors to protect workers’ rights. Since its inception nearly a decade ago, the office has returned over $38 million in underpayments to thousands of Australian workers. Yet now the Labor party bizarrely opposes this friend of the workers, with the Leader of the Opposition yesterday desperately trying to recover ground for the ACTU by saying that the public servants who work in the Office of Workplace Services are ‘snivelling little liars’. Why this bizarre and cowardly attack on the independent umpire? Today it is not about who said it but about why he said it. It is pretty easy and it is pretty clear: Mr Beazley does not like the exposure the independent umpire gave to the ACTU’s deceptive campaign. The independent umpire exposed the dodginess of their campaign, as a result of which—might I add—the ACTU have now changed their campaign and are going back to actors rather than the so-called real-life cameos, which were found to be false.

The irony is this: at the last election, guess who made a commitment to provide $40 million to this body? It was none other than the Australian Labor Party. They liked the Office of Workplace Services so much that Craig Emerson, the then spokesman, committed Labor to providing extra funding to this supposed organisation of snivelling liars. No wonder Craig Emerson is now on the backbench. This is an example—