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

That's a very good question, Senator Sheldon. Last year, we heard claims from Senator Cash that the secure jobs, better pay bill would 'potentially close down Australia'. It looks pretty open to me! It has not closed down. On 4 September, before the secure jobs, better pay bill had even been written, Senator Cash claimed that our government's reforms would 'have the potential to take us back to the dark ages, to close down parts of the economy'. They'll be having leeches out doing medical treatments next, like they did in the Dark Ages. We'll be having Knights of the Round Table in Senator Cash's world.

Whenever Labor does something to get wages moving again, you can rely on the catastrophising and hyperbole from Senator Cash and the rest of the opposition. The former government had almost a decade to take action to close these loopholes. Instead, we had Mr Fletcher calling the labour-hire loophole essentially a made-up issue. Low-wage work was a deliberate design— (Time expired)