Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Abetz, representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister advise the Senate of the value of the Howard government’s Australian workplace agreements to both individual workers and the broader economy? Is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the Senate comes to order I will call the minister. If senators want to waste question time by making interjections then let it be so.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Mason for his question and note his commitment to creating more jobs and higher wages for our fellow Australians. The independent evidence of the respected Australian Bureau of Statistics is absolutely clear: workers on the Howard government’s Australian workplace agreements are paid on average 13 per cent more than those on, often union negotiated, collective agreements. No ifs and no buts—that is what the official figures say.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senators on my left will come to order! Senator Evans, you have complained to me consistently about the lack of questions you ask on your side of the parliament. If your side of parliament are going to continually interject, do not expect to get as many questions in as you would expect.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hope you have not been intimidated by Senator Vanstone’s remarks, Mr President. Quite frankly, if the minister is going to be inflammatory, people will respond. I will encourage senators to not be baited by Senator Abetz’s misrepresentation of the facts.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you would know, Senator Evans, it is my responsibility to try to keep order in this place and I expect senators to respect that.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It now seems that, to those opposite, quoting the Australian Bureau of Statistics is a misrepresentation of the facts.

Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Urban Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Carr interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Carr, you are warned! If you interject again I will name you.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, can I suggest that Senator Evans, rather than making frivolous points of order, should be suggesting to his colleagues that they should not accept the Prime Minister’s invitations to go to lunch, because I am sure that is the reason for the noise today.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The senators on my left are particularly noisy today. I ask you to come to order.

John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. I would ask you to reflect on a ruling that you made a short time ago, when you mentioned that if there were to be interjections from the opposition or other senators, so be it. I think you should reflect on those words, which you said to the chamber during question time. The response of senators is hardly surprising given that you have uttered those words.

Paul Calvert (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for the advice, Senator. But it is my responsibility to try to keep order in this place, and I will do it whichever way I can.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know the Australian Labor Party do not like hearing the evidence not only of the Australian Bureau of Statistics but also of workers—workers such as Graeme, a Queensland coalminer who is earning more than $100,000 a year on his Australian workplace agreement. Today in the Australian he said:

The system works. If a person is prepared to work, he keeps his job ...

Or how about Jason, a mill operator, who is on an AWA and earning more than $70,000 per annum? Today he said:

It is a pretty sweet deal ... I don’t have any problems negotiating directly with the people who employ me—and I really don’t think many people do.

That is pretty clear, you would have to say. But today, typical of the Labor Party and union campaign, they yet again rolled out their favourite union bard and chorister, Mr Peetz, singing the same tired old Labor tune. Could I simply suggest that, when the people of Australia have a choice between Mr Peetz or the Australian Bureau of Statistics, they might go for the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Senator Mason also asked me about alternative policies. Unfortunately for Australians who want a job, who want to earn more money and who want more flexibility, the instruments that more than anything else have allowed that to happen, AWAs, will be abolished under Labor. I remind the Senate and suggest to those opposite, before they engage in their affected jeering, that in October 2005 their very own leader said:

There will be a million of those things—

AWAs—

in place when we come into office, and you can’t wander round cancelling contracts.

Yet, all of a sudden, after a secret meeting with Unions New South Wales, you can rip them up. Talk about flip-flop. Talk about weak leadership. It is a desperate bid by Mr Beazley to ensure that his own employment contract with the Labor caucus is not ripped up. That is the reason he is doing what he is doing. And in so doing—in protecting his own job—he is willing to sacrifice the hard-earned wage increases and extra jobs that have been won by so many of our fellow Australians. (Time expired)