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

I thank Senator Adams for her question and I note that she is a strong advocate for the state of WA. I understand that state may well be changing its name very shortly to AWA because of the great popularity of AWAs in WA! Today’s labour force figures show that unemployment in Australia has now reached a 33-year low of 4.4 per cent. Last month 49,600 new jobs were created, which means 326,200 new jobs have been created since our new industrial relations system came into law and 85 per cent of those are full-time jobs.

The Howard government recognise, unlike those on the other side, that the most important safety net any government can provide to its citizens is the opportunity to have a job, and the evidence is that we are doing just that. But we also recognise that there should be appropriate and strong protections for those who work whilst not being a disincentive to employment. It is all about getting the balance right. That is why we enshrined in law for the first time a number of minimum conditions which cannot be traded. These included annual leave, 10 days personal leave and a maximum 38-hour working week. Do you know what else we did? We introduced a minimum wage. That is something which the Labor Party forgot to include in their industrial relations policy when they announced it a short time ago. The basic component of any remuneration package is surely the basic minimum wage, and that is what Labor left out. Talk about incompetent and talk about not being ready to govern.