George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to Senator Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How is the Howard government acting to increase wages and employment in this country, and is the minister aware of any alternative policies?

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

I firstly thank Senator Brandis for the question and note his longstanding interest in ensuring that we create employment opportunities and increased wages in this country. The Howard government has a plan for continuing to increase wages and create new jobs in Australia, unlike those opposite, who want to go backwards. Already, after just a couple of months operation, the evidence suggests that our plan to increase workplace flexibility and fairness is reaping dividends. Over 78,000 new full-time jobs have been created since Work Choices came into law in March. The independent Australian Bureau of Statistics evidence is that not only do people on AWAs enjoy extra flexibility such as family friendly conditions but they also earn, on average, 13 per cent more than those on often union-negotiated certified agreements.

We on this side will retain the option for individual Australians to strike a deal with their employers which best suits them. Those on the other side will not. They will insist, they will demand, that the unions do it for you, even if you do not want their involvement. Mr Beazley’s decision to do that is all about the self interest of the unions and Mr Beazley’s own personal self interest, not the interest of workers. It might be time to have another ‘Who said it’. On this occasion, I honestly do not know who said it, but I will give those opposite a hint. This is what was said about Mr Beazley’s backflip, or rollover: ‘A gutless rollover to appease a mob of gangsters’—that is, Unions NSW in Sydney. ‘He’—Beazley—‘sacrificed the party position to save his own.’

Who said that? None of us on this side knows, but somebody on that side clearly knows. The hint is that it was a senior shadow minister of the Labor Party. Some on the front bench of the Australian Labor Party know the damage that Mr Beazley’s announcement has done. It is about time for the honest one on the front bench to stand up, fess up and tell it as it is, like Mr Joe de Bruyn—and I commend him for this—who had the honesty to debunk and expose Mr Beazley’s assertion that his backflip on AWAs was as a result of Spotlight.

The only spotlight over the weekend has been the spotlight on Mr Beazley for having misrepresented the position of Spotlight workers. Even the trade union representing the shoppies had to expose Mr Beazley’s misinformation—I will not say ‘lie’—to the Australian people. Even he had to distance himself from it. The weak, implausible argument that Mr Beazley put forward for his backflip has now been exposed by the trade union movement itself, and a Labor frontbencher knows it as well. But of course, for fear of intimidation and retaliatory action by the trade union movement for his or her reindorsement, they are not willing to identify themselves. That is the sort of country we will have under a Labor government. But we want to see increased employment and increased wages. (Time expired)