Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator Abetz. Will the minister inform the Senate of employment and wage outcomes in the Australian workforce since Work Choices was passed into law almost one year ago? Are there any threats to these positive outcomes being continued into the future?

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

I thank Senator Ronaldson for his question and note that he, like all of us on this side, is committed to getting on with the job of creating more jobs and higher wages for our fellow Australians. That is why the Howard government took the tough but necessary decision to introduce Work Choices. It was tough because like all of our reforms it was cynically opposed by those opposite. But it was necessary because we wanted to ensure ongoing jobs and wages growth for our fellow Australians. Almost a year has passed now and the results are in. In four words, the results are more jobs, higher wages. Let me repeat that: more jobs, higher wages—the exact opposite of that which Labor said would happen.

Since Work Choices was passed into law on 27 March 2006, there have been a massive 263,000 jobs created for our fellow Australians. Tellingly, a massive 87 per cent of those jobs—228,810—are full-time jobs; real jobs. What did the Labor Party falsely prophesise would take place? There would be mass sackings, they said. They could not have been more wrong. What we have seen is mass employment, not mass sackings. What about wages? Once again, Labor promised doom and gloom. For example, Labor’s employment spokesman in this place, Senator Wong, repeatedly and falsely asserted that Work Choices would drive down wages. Indeed, so did senators McEwen, Conroy, Sterle and Webber. Get the picture? Every single Labor senator in this place made that false assertion about Work Choices. And the facts? Since the commencement of Work Choices, real wages have risen by 1.5 per cent. In total, real wages have now risen under the Howard government by 19.8 per cent, compared to a fall in real wages under the previous Labor government.

There is indeed a threat to the positive wage and job outcomes that the Howard government has delivered through Work Choices, and the threat is the Labor Party. Make no mistake: if Labor are elected, they will rip up Work Choices; they will rip up 263,000 jobs—and they are cheering. So if Labor gets elected, the jobs of those 263,000 Australians will be ripped up. I thank my colleagues opposite for putting that on the public record. Further, the people of Australia will no longer enjoy the real wage increases that they have obtained.

It is clear that only a strong economy can deliver real wage increases without runaway inflation. The wizardry of the Labor Party when they were last in government gave us high unemployment, high inflation and no real wage increases. That was the wizardry of the Labor Party compared to that of the Howard government, which has delivered real employment growth and real wages growth. The issue that counts for Australians and their families is the opportunity for employment so as to be self-sufficient. The Howard government, by taking the tough but necessary decisions, has delivered on behalf of the people of Australia. I would urge our fellow Australians to consider those issues very carefully in the months to come.