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

What they do not want to hear is that, under Work Choices, employment is up, unemployment is down—it is at an historic 4.6 per cent low—wages are up 16.5 per cent, industrial disputes are at the lowest level since records were kept in this country and, in the last year, productivity has increased by 2.2 per cent. This is the complete opposite of that which was so falsely prophesied by Labor and the union movement. So it is little wonder that the Labor-union scare campaign against Work Choices has stalled, just like Mr Beazley’s leadership has stalled.

Today, in a desperate attempt to confect community concern, the unions, the Greens and Labor organised what they claimed would be mass rallies. Like Senator Brown, they overestimated their support before the event and, when confronted with the actual results, with egg all over their face, they falsely went about trying to deny the expectations they had set. Even with a free Jimmy Barnes concert they could not fill the MCG. Let me say, as an aside, that it is a sad day when the man who originally performed this country’s classic song Working Class Man is corralled into campaigning against the fundamental right of all Australians to have a job.

So why the low turnout? According to the opposition spokesman, Mr Smith, it was because—wait for this—the trains were not running on time in Melbourne. Come on! What a lame excuse. You don’t believe that yourselves. So what was the excuse in Canberra? They do not have trains in Canberra, so guess what the excuse was: the buses were not running on time in Canberra. What were Senators Hutchins and Sterle, the trade workers union operatives in the Senate, doing? I wonder what they were up to. Possibly they were too busy undermining Mr Beazley.

I tell those opposite that it was not the workers who missed the bus; it was the Labor Party and the trade union movement who missed the bus. The workers were on the bus but, instead of getting off at silly rallies, they were getting off where all the new job opportunities have been created in this country. They are getting new jobs, they are getting AWAs and they are getting higher wages. The workers of Australia know that Mr Howard is their true friend because his actions, in creating jobs and higher wages, speak so much louder and more effectively than the empty rhetoric of those opposite and the trade union movement.