Trish Crossin (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Perhaps if my colleagues opposite could stop shouting for five minutes and listen they might hear the truth about this situation. Because guess what? The offer was refused. You have the gall to stand up in this chamber this afternoon and seek to malign the most competent Deputy Prime Minister we have had in this country for a very long time, when the facts show that the offer was made to assist with this dispute and the employer refused. They did not want Fair Work Australia as the independent umpire to rule on the issues in dispute and preferred to continue bargaining. That is what happened. There are new options in the act to help with industrial action, including the ability to end industrial action that is significantly harming both the parties, and new good faith bargaining rules apply. But no application was actually made by AMMA or the employers on those grounds either.

It is quite clear that the minister cannot intervene and will not intervene unless there has been an offer from her office and an acceptance of that offer to participate in such a matter. You cannot get up in this chamber and malign the Deputy Prime Minister and have a go at Fair Work Australia for not doing their jobs if they make the offer to employers and in fact that offer is declined. You cannot make up a story, make an issue or make a case out of something that does not actually apply and has not applied.

I might also say that the MUA has been bargaining with 13 companies in the offshore gas and oil industry. They have claimed a 30 per cent wage increase over three years and they have complied with all the legal requirements for taking industrial action in bargaining, including secret ballots and giving notice. Now, AMMA, ACCI and the Australian Shipowners Association have made representations to the government seeking that the minister terminate the industrial action, but they themselves have indicated that they would not seek to end industrial action. (Time expired)