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

I did not think question time should be a remedial class, but I think that is what it is turning into. I will try to assist the honourable senator yet again. As I indicated in the initial answer, workers are not deprived of their entitlements; it is their choice as to whether or not they have an Australian workplace agreement. In the circumstances of an Australian workplace agreement, as the Commonwealth Bank itself has said, the workers get a higher salary, so they do get paid more. I repeated that a number of times against the interjections of the Australian Labor Party. The chances are that Senator Marshall, who sits on the back row—where he belongs—did not hear that.