Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The minister is still very rudely interjecting. Today they are still unable to give that same guarantee that they demanded of the former government. I say to the Labor Party and to the minister: those good sound bites from the election campaign are a lot more difficult to turn into good, sound policy. The demands you made of the former government you now accept and realise you cannot live up to yourselves. Ms Gillard, in the other place, has been unable to give that guarantee. The minister at the table was unable to give that guarantee at Senate estimates. She was not willing to make the guarantee, which of course means that the Labor Party itself acknowledges that there will be workers worse off as a result of this legislation.

I am giving the minister at the table the opportunity today to once and for all rule out that any worker will be worse off. If, as I suspect, she is unable to give that guarantee, she must have within her mind the category of workers that in fact will be worse off. She must have in her mind how many workers will be worse off and in what states she anticipates those workers will be in. Will they be mainly in the tourism industry or the resources sector? If she is unable to give that guarantee, she must realise that there will be some who will be worse off. So I ask the minister: can she give that guarantee and, if not, will she identify for us those who will be worse off?