Judith Adams (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Eric Abetz, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. How is the Howard government moving to protect Australia’s prosperity, especially in the valuable resources sector; 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 thank Senator Adams for her question and note that she comes from the resource-rich state of Western Australia. I also note that the resources boom is helping to drive Australia’s prosperity. Through our sound economic management, through paying off the $96 billion Labor debt that we were left with and, significantly, through refining Australia’s industrial relations system, the Howard government is moving to secure the economic prosperity of Australians.

I was asked specifically by Senator Adams what the Howard government is doing to assist the resources sector, a sector which by any objective measure is currently delivering a significant benefit to all Australians—some $85 billion a year, in fact, in export income from resources and processed products. Just about every reputable and knowledgeable commentator agrees that one of the most significant drivers of this resources industry growth has been flexible industrial relations laws, the most important component of which, of course, is Australian workplace agreements, AWAs, which Labor would rip up if they ever got into government—agreements which Senator Adams herself knows have enabled the mining industry to have the highest annual productivity growth of any industry since we introduced them in 1996. Almost one in every two employees in the minerals sector is employed under an Australian workplace agreement—one in two. In the metals sector, it is four out of five. Yet Labor would rip up the agreements workers have with their employers which enable them, on average, to earn more than 13 per cent above those on union-negotiated agreements. Labor would rip them up and force the workers to have union-negotiated agreements where one size fits all—the lowest common denominator.

Mr Beazley’s policy would, to quote Terry McCrann this morning, ‘seriously hurt every single current and future Australian’. He said there would be a ‘mass destruction of jobs—right across the broader economy’. Those on the other side like to say that the resources sector is the goose that is laying Australia’s golden egg at the moment. Well, Mr Beazley wants to kill this goose that lays the golden economic egg, by ripping up AWAs for no other reason than to protect his shaky leadership. Daily, Mr Beazley’s justification for ripping up AWAs and adopting this very lazy policy position is being further shredded. First of all, we had the shop unions deny the allegations about Spotlight; Joe de Bruyn denied the allegations. Then we had the Coffs Coast Advocate newspaper deny that they had ever made the comments that Mr Beazley tried to assert. Today we have the owner of Spotlight also confirming that Mr Beazley’s assertions were false.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

So when you have the union, you have the employer—

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

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

Order!

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

and you have the newspaper all indicating that Mr Beazley is wrong—

George Campbell (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator George Campbell interjecting—

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

Senator Campbell!

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

I wonder who is right. Is Mr Beazley right and everybody else wrong? Mr Beazley simply overplayed his hand. (Time expired)