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

Burrow. She is one of the most insignificant presidents of the ACTU. Bob Hawke, of course, was the most high-profile, but the current one is one of the most insignificant ones. Is it any wonder when she makes comments like, ‘Parents will not be home for Christmas because of the Work Choices legislation’? There were others foolishly making comments such as, ‘Children will be going to school without shoes.’ We had members on the other side—the former leader—saying that it would be a green light for mass dismissals. There were even more foolish comments by Bill Shorten and other union leaders. We also know that the unions have levied their members to the tune of $30 million—a war chest for the forthcoming federal election—to run dishonest ads. I say ‘dishonest ads’ because we have already seen the types of ads placed on television last year and running in the early part of this year. So bad and so dishonest were some of those advertisements that they were pulled off the television.

Having laid that foundation, I stand up here to acknowledge the 12 months of Work Choices legislation—perhaps one of the government’s boldest reforms. This government has never stepped back from introducing reforms. We started reforming in our first term, and the Work Choices legislation was 10 years into this government. So from the first day we came into government through to our 10th year we have not stop reforming. Let us look at some of those reforms. Within our first term we introduced an independent Reserve Bank. Why did we do that? Because the former Prime Minister boasted how he had the Reserve Bank in his pocket, compromising their very work. We introduced an independent Reserve Bank. You did not like that. You voted and stood against it.

We introduced a Charter of Budget Honesty in our first term. Why did we do that? Because you went to the last election lying about the budget situation. When we came in we found a $10 billion deficit. That is why we introduced that. In our first term we introduced very courageous and tough cuts to the budget. Why? To lay the foundations for producing budget surpluses. You voted against that. We also in our first term and throughout our whole 11 years have put in place a debt reduction strategy. You were against that.