Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have just heard from Senator Nash for the National Party—a party that had a TV series named after it. It was called Lost. And to prove that, she is actually asking the Labor Party to provide her with a map. I want to deal with the answers given by Senator Abetz. Today is the first anniversary of the introduction of Work Choices. I might also say that it happens to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which led to the establishment of the European Union. But, whereas the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome is something positive to celebrate, the first anniversary of Work Choices is not.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, received his present for the anniversary of Work Choices on the weekend in New South Wales when his Liberal Party in New South Wales suffered a devastating defeat. In an election where the Labor government had been in power for 12 years—one would think that after 12 years in government you might start to be under some threat of losing power due to the simple effluxion of time—what happened in New South Wales? The Liberal Party failed to win one seat back from the Labor Party. They did not take one seat off the Labor government. The only two new seats they won in New South Wales, they won back from Independents—the seats of Pittwater and Manly. Those seats up there on the North Shore, the jewel in the crown area of the Liberal Party’s representation in Sydney, had been held by Independents for a number of years and they finally won them back, but nothing else. Not a single other seat did they win back.

They are actually struggling to retain the seat of Goulburn where they had their star candidate, Pru Goward. She is, I believe, a quality person who could represent the Liberal Party well—the person who was rejected for the safe Liberal seat of Epping. The Liberal Party made her run in Goulburn and she is struggling to retain that seat for the Liberals. Why? She herself admits industrial relations were of major concern. When she was asked about this on Radio National she said: ‘They’—naturally the constituents—‘were telling me that their shift loadings were being cut and their incomes were going down.’ That was her response to what was an issue of concern. Industrial relations, Work Choices, were clearly a major issue in the New South Wales state election held last Saturday.

No matter how much the Prime Minister, Mr Hockey, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, try to dismiss it, it is a fact. It is a major issue. The Labor government under Morris Iemma went out there and campaigned on the issue of industrial relations. They said that they would not hand over any powers to John Howard and the federal government. They supported the retention of the New South Wales industrial relations system and the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales. It is a commission that has protected the conditions of millions of New South Wales workers and their families for over 100 years and it continues to do so.

When Senator Abetz gets up here today and tells us all about the great results that he says have been achieved as a result of Work Choices in 12 months, it is all a fiction. In New South Wales the vast majority of workers are regulated by the state industrial relations system, not by Work Choices. They are still under the state system. Prime Minister John Howard and the minister are trying to drag them into the federal system but fortunately a large proportion of workers in New South Wales still work under the state system. They are the ones who are producing the improvements in this economy, not this ramshackle government here.

Last Saturday, you guys were smashed politically in New South Wales and you will continue to be in opposition in New South Wales as long as you continue to support the discredited Work Choices system. The minister talks about delivering jobs for women, but you could not even deliver a safe seat to one of your own stars, for one of your female candidates, Pru Goward. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.