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

I indicate that the coalition will be voting that the Senate insist on its amendments. This morning the Senate, after showcasing itself as the very best in developing a compromise on complicated and potentially divisive issues, sensibly supported the third reading of the Fair Work Bill 2008 unopposed by any senator in this chamber. It is regrettable that some senators have now allowed the Deputy Prime Minister off the hook, the hook of her arrogance, that she herself had hooked herself up on.

Let us examine what Ms Gillard and Labor were refusing to accept. There were six amendments in all that can be distilled into three issues. The first issue—and this was in Senator Xenophon’s amendments—was whether a small business should be seen as being an enterprise of 20 or 15 employees. For the sake of a handful of employees in the definition of ‘small business’, Ms Gillard was foolishly going to hold back the repeal of Work Choices—a position she could not have maintained in the Australian community. Yet Family First and others have allowed her the big backdown, by them providing the backdown.

We have said to the Australian people that Work Choices is dead. They know it. That is why we voted the way we did in the early hours of this morning. Why was Ms Gillard so concerned to keep the definition of ‘small business’ at 15 rather than 20 employees? Because Ms Gillard had said so, despite the fact that the Australian Bureau of Statistics says that a ‘small business’ should be seen as 20 employees.