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

Again, I note that the shadow minister for IR has been banned from asking questions about IR issues, and that can only be because everyone remembers the work that Senator Cash did as the IR minister, when she inflicted conflict and low wages on the Australian public. But I'm happy to hear those questions. I'm happy to take questions from Senator McDonald, who I know has a genuine interest in the resources industry.

I completely reject the claims being made by some employer groups that the government's industrial relations plans will cost the sorts of job numbers that are being thrown around. In fact, one of the reasons the government is pursuing these IR changes is they offer the opportunity to deliver a win-win to both employers and employees. Under the former government and the policies it pursued, we had persistently low productivity with a conflict based system being inflicted on employers and employees, while at the same time delivering some of the lowest wage growth that our country has seen.

We can have every confidence that, as a result of the government's IR changes, should the Senate pass them—and I sincerely hope they do—employers will win, through higher productivity, and that includes mining employers. And workers will win, through getting the pay rise that they were denied by the former government for far too long.

The kinds of claims that we are seeing being made by some groups in the community, backed in by the coalition, are not based on fact. They are not based on the experience of every other country around the world that has pursued the kinds of changes that our government is pursuing.

Our changes are about driving up productivity and giving workers the pay rise that they finally deserve after waiting so long.