Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes. I will just finish by saying that I guess the interjections show the obsession that the opposition senators have with politicians actually leading by example and showing some wage restraint. Then again, I think that is something that they have to work out with their own consciences, but they will struggle with that.

Then we had Senator Kemp making a bizarre attack. I do not think he used the word ‘treacherous’, but he talked about employer organisations that I think wanted to ‘get into bed with the ALP’ or ‘get the crumbs’ or words to that effect. The problem was he commended a lot of the employer organisations and then went on to describe the one that he does not like, the AiG, as apolitical. I think that is probably a fair description of them. If the AiG is apolitical and all the others are not, but they were the ones who were supporting the coalition in the election, I suggest he probably has not really argued that properly. It was fairly obvious, through the submissions, that many of the employer organisations that had invested so heavily politically in Work Choices were still very supportive of the coalition and would rather not have AWAs removed. But, on the whole, the evidence to the committee was that the transition bill and the substantive bill will be very workable—the policy has been accepted, people are working towards that, and there were no serious concerns raised with moving forward with fairness through this particular policy.

I understand that it is very difficult for the coalition after investing so heavily, politically and financially, in Work Choices. The introduction of Work Choices cost many hundreds of millions of dollars to implement. They also invested nearly $200 million in advertising to promote it. So they had an enormous commitment, politically and financially, to Work Choices, and I know it is incredibly difficult for them to give that away. One thing we can be absolutely assured of—given the coalition senators’ report and the contribution made by coalition senators to this debate—is that, if they are ever returned to government, there will be Work Choices mark 2, and that will include AWAs. They will have a new name for them by then—we have already seen the start of that today. They have not let go of that failed policy. They do not care that it hurt working people, that it stripped them of wages and conditions and left them much worse off. They do not care that there was rarely any—if any—individual bargaining taking place, which is something I want to spend a couple of moments on. (Time expired)