Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That is right! What the Australian people are going to have to make a decision about in five or six months time is whether they are going to allow the Australian Labor Party to dramatically reregulate the IR that has put up this very productivity that they are crying crocodile tears over today. Senator Carr, you are no friend of business but I invite you to listen to the comments of those in the business community. You might even want to ring the fellow that you have suddenly apparently dropped, Sir Rod Eddington—your conduit to the business community. How many phone calls did Sir Rod get in relation to industrial relations policy? None. Your conduit into the business community, so proudly trumpeted by the Leader of the Opposition, did not get one phone call from anyone in the Australian Labor Party in relation to IR. Not one phone call! This engagement with the business community—well, I think I have a rough idea of what Sir Rod Eddington thinks about you people and quite frankly I share his views: you are not worthy of his time.

There is only one group of people who dictate ALP IR policy and that is the ACTU and the union bosses, who are single-handedly responsible for the destruction of the small business sector in this country under the last Labor government and who have clearly dictated to the Australian Labor Party that they must return to their traditional roots. There is this line that has been run by some in the union movement that they have had to make concessions: well, there have been no concessions and they are charging you the full fare, my friend, for their $30 million in advertising. There are no concessions; this is a full fare and you are paying 100 per cent of the debt that you owe the ACTU.

You are only there for the protection of sectional interests. You have no interest in the wider Australian community. Your past indicates that you have no interest; your new IR laws indicate that you are hell bent on ripping apart the engine room of the Australian economy, which is the small business sector. Your IR policy, Senator Carr, is designed to allow your union mates to once again go into every small business in this country and enforce and impose on them your philosophical views on life. You have always hated the small business sector; you have bowed to the ACTU, which is determined to make sure that you make the lives of small business absolute hell. I think you get some perverse enjoyment out of it. And you get enjoyment out of it because you simply cannot control it. (Time expired)