George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

That is right, Senator O'Sullivan: one of the things they could have done was employed a lot more people. But of course employing people rather than protecting the vested interests of trade union members has never been part of the Australian Labor Party's agenda.

Turning then to the Amending Acts 1970 to 1979 Repeal Bill 2014, it tells you, I think, just how much the pace of legislative interference in people's lives had accelerated in this country in the decade 1970 to 1979, that decade famously described by the great Barry Humphries as 'The decade that taste forgot.' It tells you how far the legislative burden had increased when you consider that, in the 70 years between the beginning of the Federation and 1970, the aggregate number of unnecessary laws that were lying about on the statute book was 1,803. But yet, in just 10 years, the volume of Commonwealth legislation had so exploded that that produced 656 bills which now, 40 or so years later, are considered to be obsolete.

You might wonder, Madam Acting Deputy President, what was it about the 1970s, apart from it being 'The decade that taste forgot,' in Australian history? There is one particular period during the decade of the 1970s that we will always remember with a shudder—you won't, Senator Birmingham, because you are too young. But those of us who are older than Senator Birmingham will well remember with a shudder that it was the three catastrophic years of the Whitlam government, between 1970 and 1975.