Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Many recommendations in the Amendola report will be strikingly familiar to senators. They included the reintroduction of statutory individual contracts, a weaken­ing of unfair dismissal laws, time off for public holidays to be excluded from awards and the removal of the better-off-overall test. These seem remarkably familiar concepts—concepts that were the key to the federal Liberals' Work Choices legislation.

This report had been sitting around for a year but, within days of the federal Liberals re-embracing Work Choices, Premier Colin Barnett said: 'Not for me. I'm not going to be associated with this; I'm not going down this path. The federal Liberals may be re-engaging with the Work Choices agenda but I don't want to wear that with the Western Australian public.' Mr Barnett said no to Work Choices. He is disassociating himself from the path the federal coalition is going down. (Time expired)

Senator Cormann interjecting—

Senator Chris Evans interjecting—