Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a short statement of no more than five minutes.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice standing in the name of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent me from making a statement of no more than five minutes.

I have to say, seriously, I only wanted five minutes to comment on what we have just seen this government do. Senator David Pocock, I'm going to have to include you in this. I look across this chamber. On what basis were these people elected? That of a lie, in relation to what they said about transparency: that they would all bring a new era of transparency to this place. Senator David Pocock, you told Canberrans you believed in transparency. The Australian Greens say a lot, all the time. I don't believe any of it. As for this government, guess what Mr Albanese said prior to the election: he promised the Australian people that, if they elected him and the Australian Labor Party to office, he and his ministers would deliver transparency, integrity and accountability in every single thing they'd do.

Well, from the first day you were elected and you walked into this place, we have seen those principles absolutely trashed. You are not only trashing those principles; quite frankly, you are trashing democracy, because democracy demands that this Senate fulfil its duty to the Australian people. And what is that duty? This is a house of review. We are here to interrogate the legislation that a government brings forward, whether it is a Labor government or a coalition government. And what have you done today? You've walked in—'Happy new year from the Albanese Labor government! Not only am I breaking a promise to the Australian people in relation to the legislated stage 3 tax cuts, even though my word is my bond, but this is what I'm saying to the businesses across Australia: regardless of your size, small, medium or large, there'll be another slap in the face. We slapped you in the face in 2022 when we rushed through the multi-employer bargaining laws. We smacked you in the face in 2023 when we rushed through the labour hire changes.'

But a few weeks later, the second day we are in this parliament, this is the standard of transparency that Mr Anthony Albanese, as Prime Minister of this country, now lives by. Well, guess what? The Australian people are on to you. They're on to you in the first instance because of your broken promises, but now every business in Australia knows that if they want to get rid of these laws there is now only one option, and that is to vote in a Peter Dutton led coalition government. Why? Because we will stand up for the employers of this country. We will stand up for the small businesses of this country. And do you know why we will? Because small businesses provide the jobs to Australians. Governments don't create jobs. They put in place economic frameworks. And guess what? The economic framework that the Labor Party—in conjunction with Senator Pocock, in conjunction with the Australian Greens, in conjunction with Senator Thorpe—are putting in place is an economic framework that is going to kill businesses in this country.

That is not us saying that. That is the businesses of Australia who are begging you to please listen to them. All they want to do every morning is get up, open their businesses and give Australians well-paid, sustainable jobs. And you, with all this red tape, with all this complexity, with all this confusion, are going to deny so many businesses in Australia that opportunity.

But the sad thing is, colleagues—and this is a reality—the Labor Party don't care, and we all know why they don't care: because they have the numbers to deliver on the union agenda. You only have to have a look at the little bits and pieces that they are sneaking through, such as union officials being given extra right of entry. And the right to disconnect—well, what a joke that is when it comes to transparency. You didn't talk about it before the election. You didn't talk about it during the consultation. And guess what, colleagues? If I pulled out the legislation now, you'd see that it's not even in there. We wouldn't have a clue what it is. We haven't been given an opportunity to have a look at it. And I hope all the businesses in the ACT are looking at Senator David Pocock, because he has sold you out. The Greens have sold you out. And the Australian Labor Party have yet again sold you out.