Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is right. That is what we were expecting, Senator Kemp; that is true. I can tell you what the ABS data says about industrial disputes. Let us look at the facts. They have shown that there were 3.1 working days lost per 1,000 employees in the June quarter this year, the lowest quarterly rate of disputes ever recorded by the ABS. This is an early indication of the success of Work Choices. It is fostering greater workplace cooperation, as opposed to the views expressed by the Labor Party and the union movement that the exact opposite would occur. This rate is more than 33 times lower than the highest rate recorded under the Labor government, which was 104.6 working days lost per 1,000 employees for the December 1992 quarter, when guess who was minister for employment? Kim Beazley. There has been an average of 13.4 working days lost per 1,000 employees each quarter under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 from March 1997 to June 2006, and this contrasts with the average quarterly rate of 44.4 working days lost per 1,000 employees under Labor from June 1985 to June 1996. So the high dispute levels act as a constraint on economic and employment growth, and what we are doing is encouraging greater workplace participation and cooperation.

I want to comment briefly on the High Court challenge. The Labor Party and the union movement supported a frivolous High Court challenge to the Work Choices legislation, and the Labor states and the union movement challenged the reforms in the High Court. Those challenges have cost all those parties, I understand, an estimated $4 million. In my home state of Tasmania, the Lennon government are running a budget deficit, yet they were willing to spend around $100,000. Is this correct? Can the state government confirm these figures?

Finally, I want to thank the Minister for Human Services, Joe Hockey, for his visit to Tasmania on 16 and 17 November. He came down to speak about the merits of Work Choices and to support the hardworking local member for Bass, Michael Ferguson. He participated in a number of business breakfasts, lunches, meetings and briefings, and it was a very successful visit. He met with Ben Quinn, the federal Liberal candidate for Lyons. (Time expired)