Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Polley smiles and says, 'Yes.' But, even if you discard every single word I have said, how on earth do you discard the words of three deputy presidents of Fair Work Australia and how do you discard the very wise counsel of the Law Council of Australia? The parliamentary secretary and the government can play politics with my words, but they cannot play politics with the considered views of three deputy presidents of Fair Work Australia or the Law Council of Australia. That is what makes the coalition so confident that it is right on the fundamental matter of principle that these amendments should be carried—namely, that these two new positions should not be established. Given that the government cannot respond in any coherent way to reject the views of these three deputy presidents and the Law Council of Australia, we can be left with no other conclusion than that this is a deliberate attempt to stack and pack Fair Work Australia, as the government feels it might be in the death throes.