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

I thank Senator Chapman for his question. Today is an important milestone for the workers and families of Australia. It does, as Senator Chapman indicated, mark exactly one year since Work Choices came into effect on 27 March 2006. What a great year it has been for the families and workers of Australia. Let us look at the empirical, unquestionable, solid facts.

Unemployment is at a historic, 30-year low of 4.6 per cent. In the year since Work Choices was introduced, unemployment has fallen dramatically, by a full half of one per cent. This represents the creation of 263,700 new jobs, 87 per cent of those being full time. The participation rate has increased from 64.4 per cent to 64.9 per cent. Teenage unemployment has fallen by 0.8 per cent. Mature age employment has increased by 96,800, or 2.6 per cent. Long-term unemployment has fallen by 14.5 per cent. Very long term unemployment is down by almost 25 per cent. These are solid, irrefutable, hard facts.

Work Choices has not led to the mass sackings those opposite so falsely claimed it would. It has in fact led to mass employment. And yet, incredibly, we see the Labor Party and unions continuing to deny the facts. Just yesterday, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Julia Gillard, incredibly claimed: ‘Work Choices hasn’t led to a new era of job creation.’ Try telling that to the 263,700 of our fellow Australians who know that that assertion is simply false.

Similarly, the independent, solid, hard, Australian Bureau of Statistics data show that real wages have increased by 1.5 per cent since Work Choices—that is over and above inflation, and more than Labor could manage in its 13 years in office. Yet, incredibly, Labor and the unions claim, like Mr Cocker in Tasmania this morning, that we have seen a loss of take-home pay—a desperate, barefaced, brazen lie in the face of the statistics from the bureau.

Unfortunately, this is symptomatic of the almost two year campaign Labor and the unions have subjected the Australian people to over Work Choices. It is a bit like the Greens—‘Do not bother with the facts; do not let the truth get in the way of a good headline.’ And, whilst I am on the Greens, I happened to note that their policy website is still down. And so, to coin a phrase, it would seem that their policies are still ‘on ice’.

But back to the Australian Labor Party. Take the New South Wales election. The New South Wales Labor Party had a swing against them and they claimed Work Choices was the reason they had a swing against them. What a desperate attempt by those opposite to rewrite history and the indisputable fact that over 260,000 of our fellow Australians now have employment because of the tough decisions that we as an Australian government have taken. I invite the Labor Party to show that they have not only changed leaders but that they have actually changed policies and come on board with Work Choices as they so reluctantly had to do with tax reform and so many other reforms that we have undertaken on behalf of the people. (Time expired)