Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to add my support to the government’s Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Bill 2008. Every person present in the chamber today is more than familiar with the events leading up to the introduction of this bill. Since 24 November last year there has not been a moment’s hesitation, a moment’s ambivalence, in the government’s determination to fulfil its commitment to an electorate that voiced its opposition against Work Choices so strongly at the ballot box, that was so unashamedly for fairness and balance in the work force. However, those opposite through their words and actions before, during and after the election have revealed the true nature of the scheme inflicted on the working families of this country without consultation and without mandate. Even after the former Howard government railroaded its labour reforms through the parliament, the coalition ignored its own research, hurled more taxpayers’ money at a series of advertising campaigns and eventually backed down to the extent of introducing its so-called fairness test. In reality, this was an acknowledgment of the unfair nature of its regime and the damage its terms had caused the coalition.

When the Howard government introduced the fairness test I spoke about Work Choices in this place on 18 June 2007. I highlighted that the introduction of Work Choices had already seen the removal of pay and conditions standards for tens of thousands of Australian workers that included penalty rates, holiday loading, redundancy pay, 38 hours per week of ordinary time and unfair dismissal protection for workers employed by an organisation with 100 or fewer employees. I outlined how Work Choices would facilitate and pave the way for industrial relations changes which would actively disadvantage Australian workers, not only the workers but also their families. And so it proved to be true. The Howard government crossed the line with its Work Choices, and the Australian people recognised it for what it really was: extreme, ideological, harsh and punitive legislation. Anti-worker and anti-family, Work Choices reduced people to factors in an equation based on the politics of fear and division. Now those opposite apply a different spin. Let’s look quickly at some of those twists and turns.