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

Let me go through just a few more reforms. In our first and second terms and right through to now there has been the sale of Telstra. It took us three tranches to get rid of Telstra. On each occasion you did not support it. Of course there was tax reform in our first term—the bold introduction of the GST. Try and take the GST away from the economy now. You were against that. What is more, you were against personal income tax cuts.

I mention all this in the light of the fact that this government has been a reforming government. We have introduced bold reform and we have stuck by it. There has not been one occasion that the other side have supported us. Mr Acting Deputy President, you would be quite surprised if I were to tell you that, while on each occasion they opposed each of those reforms that I mentioned—the independence of the Reserve Bank, the Charter of Budget Honesty, budget surpluses, tax reform, the cleaning up of the waterfront, debt reduction, and the sale of Telstra, no less—the opposition now support every single one. They are going to the next election—wisely, I should add; common sense has finally come to them—supporting every single one of those reforms.

But there is one reform they will not change on, I bet, and that is the government’s Work Choices legislation. When we introduced it they said it would be a disaster for the workers and a disaster for the economy. The verdict is in and we have the result. I rise tonight to acknowledge that after 12 months—a fair time to see whether the Work Choices would meet all expectations of the government or for that matter of the opposition—the verdict is in.