Steve Hutchins (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, regarding Senator Fisher in her previous role: we know exactly where she came from. We knew that the coalition wanted individual workplace agreements. We knew that they really wanted to have them as they were: stripped down to a minimum number of guarantees. They really wanted to make sure that the workplace was solely and wholly controlled by the employer so that he or she—the employer—could do exactly what they wanted to do with the wages and conditions and the benefits of those workers.

The coalition might have far more honourable men and women on that side who might have a bit of credibility when they get up and speak on these issues, but certainly not Senator Fisher—not someone who was cloned in Minister Reith’s office, not someone who was responsible for some of the most destructive and debilitating actions by a coalition government in industrial relations since the Great Depression. So don’t come in here, Senator Fisher, and cry crocodile tears on behalf of these people, because you don’t believe it. Mr Deputy President, she does not believe it. She does not believe anything other than that the power in the workplace should be in the hands of the employer, not the employee. She does not believe in a compulsory arbitration system. She did not argue that at all in her earlier contribution. She does not believe in any of that. And, as I said, she does not believe in any of the other things that she was carrying on about in relation to low-paid people.

We went to the last election saying we would abolish Australian workplace agreements, and we did. There has been a great sigh of relief in the community, from men and women who have been put in positions where they have had to accept what the boss showed them or they would get it in the neck. That has changed. At the moment we are in the process, as we said when we went to an election on this, of a five-year phase-in period. We also said that we would have these transitional arrangements, and that they would go through Fair Work Australia. We could not have been any clearer when we went to the last election. The Prime Minister, when he was Leader of the Opposition, made it very clear what our industrial relations policy was. When men and women went and voted they knew exactly what they were voting for. The trade unions who negotiated with the then Labor opposition knew exactly what they were prepared for. So no-one can come into this place and cry crocodile tears, like Mr Reith’s clone did, and suggest—