Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

We hear this chorus yet again from the opposition who, all of a sudden and despite everything we know that happened before the election, have this confected outrage about the position of women in workplaces. What this code that the opposition wants to keep in place does is it stops employers and employees reaching agreements about things like women's participation in the workplace. If you want to be serious about how women are treated in workplaces, why would you not get rid of a code that tries to stop employers and employees coming to arrangements with their unions about how women are treated in a workplace? I note the utter hypocrisy—the rank hypocrisy—of the opposition, who despite everything that we know that happened before the election in terms of the treatment of women in this very building, have all of a sudden become converts to the idea that women need to be protected in workplaces. They are trying to do this by keeping a code that stops companies and employees coming to agreement about women's participation. There is so much more I could say in response to the opposition senators, but out of respect for my colleagues I'll make sure that there's enough time for them to add to it as well.