Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, your question relates, obviously, to the types of reforms to industrial relations that our government has outlined—reforms that build upon the pillars of our economic recovery plan in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic and the shock waves that it sent across the global economy and our own. Although our economy has withstood those shock waves far better than most of the rest of the world, seeing businesses survive that elsewhere would not have survived and seeing jobs survive that elsewhere would not have survived, we still face challenges in terms of that economic recovery. And so that we do get the continued growth in jobs that we have enjoyed, that has brought us to this stage of the comeback from COVID-19, we are making sure that through the budget we deliver in relation to growth and investment to make sure that Australians, through our tax reforms, have got more money to spend, to make sure that businesses have got more incentive to invest and to make sure that there is confidence to employ as well.

Our approach right through this pandemic has been one of engagement and consultation, be it with the states and territories or be it with business or the trade union movement—and we welcome, and thank them for, the cooperation that has been shown through the different stages of the pandemic. We equally welcome the fact that in relation to reform of the IR system, looking forward, there was a very lengthy consultation process, bringing together the different groups for over 180 hours of industrial relations discussions, all of them designed to try to get collaboration and consultation around— (Time expired)