Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am never worried about interjections; the more the merrier—certainly from Senator Macdonald and Senator Colbeck. That is fine. It is clear that the two people from the coalition who have contributed to the debate on the bill today really do not understand what it is about—and what would you expect from the coalition? This is a coalition with absolute economic incompetence, with only one argument about trying to improve productivity. We hear about productivity and costs. What was their approach, in the 11½ years of the Howard government? Their approach was to try to destroy the wages and conditions of workers in this country, to try to force them down to the bottom. That is the coalition, and they are waiting with Work Choices in their back pockets, waiting to come back, waiting to support big business and trying to drive wages and conditions down. We heard from Senator Joyce and Senator Colbeck. Let me give a bit of advice to Senator Colbeck: you should stop worrying about this bill, because this is a bill that will benefit Tasmania. What you should do—