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

That is something that those opposite do not want to hear about, and that is why we have this cacophony of interjections. No matter how much they interject, it will not make up for the appalling turnout, because the workers of Australia actually know what AWAs mean. The leader of the Labor Party’s state of Western Australia has the highest rate of take-up of AWAs in this country. Guess where the highest approval rating of AWAs in this country is? In Western Australia. So, as people are experiencing AWAs, as people see the benefits of AWAs, they are taking them up and the community is accepting them.

So, despite all the fear, all the hysteria, all the attempts by those opposite—even wearing their pathetic little lapel badges in question time today—to whip up some sort of community activity, the community stayed away in droves today because they do not believe the campaign, they do not believe what is being so mischievously peddled around the community. The 200,000 people that have got jobs as a result of Work Choices actually know the reality. And the mums and dads and brothers and sisters of those people know the reality, and that is why they support these changes.