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

That is absolutely not the intent or the purpose—nor will it be the result—of the government's reforms. As I have said time and time again in this place, the government is implementing these reforms to create the best environment for jobs and employment growth to continue strongly in this country. We've seen some 80 per cent of jobs that were lost or had reduced hours due to the pandemic regained to date. That shows there's still work to do in other ways. We also know from the cooperation that occurred during the pandemic that there are opportunities for efficiencies and improvements to occur in our industrial relations environment and workplace relations space. That's what these changes seek to do. They seek to ensure that we get practical improvements to the way in which the workplace relations system works.

In terms of those practical improvements we expect to see real gains for businesses and employees. Without business success there is no employment success. That is a key point that is fundamental to everything about job creation in this country—without business success there is no job success. So we have to make sure our businesses are successful. Our investments, be they in infrastructure, skills or tax reforms and incentives, are all about creating the environment for jobs growth. These reforms are about creating the environment for jobs growth as well. These reforms will create more jobs so that any worker ultimately wanting a job will be better off as a result of them.