Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight I would like to acknowledge the introduction of the government’s Work Choices legislation 12 months ago. We know that this week it has been a source of debate in this chamber and we know that the premiers, after last week’s New South Wales state election and the previous Victorian election, late last year, are ritualistically getting up there to say that it was Work Choices, the government’s industrial relations legislation, that led to their glorious victories. We know Labor is going to make this a centrepiece of the forthcoming federal election. When we first introduced this legislation 12 months ago the opposition declared that basically the sky would fall in. Just listen to some of the comments that were made when we first introduced this legislation. Sharan Barrows, the ACTU President—