Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am rather bemused by Senator Furner’s glowing comments on the state of the economy in Australia and how well placed we are. The last time I checked, the state of the economy was the reason that the Labor government has done a backflip on its support for the ASU equal remuneration case that is currently before Fair Work Australia.

If anybody has been listening to talkback radio today or has actually bothered to read the newspapers, they would know that Labor’s backflip on its support for the ASU test case is now threatening to destroy the ALP’s relationship with the ASU. I have it on very good authority that an internal stoush has now arisen in the ranks of the union movement over the equal pay test case and that the ASU are white hot with anger. They are absolutely furious over Labor’s betrayal of them. There are now internal disputes between the ASU and the ACTU, and the union heavies involved in both of those unions, about just how hard they should push the Prime Minister on this issue. The biggest problem they have is that, on Saturday, there is a state election in Victoria. The ACTU are saying, ‘Please calm everything down,’ while the ASU—and good on the ASU, I say—want to attack Prime Minister Gillard and tear strips off the Gillard Labor government for its betrayal of community sector employees.

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Read the submission!

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

ASU members are now openly talking about supporting the Greens and are openly questioning the relationship and the affiliation that they had with the Labor Party.

Then there is the pressure that we all know is coming from the Right of the Labor Party for the ASU to be muted in their criticism of the Gillard Labor government. All I can say is war has clearly been declared between the ASU and the Australian Labor Party. And we know this is true—this is not just me talking—because the Prime Minister of Australia yesterday had to go online and blog on the ALP’s website to frantically try to justify the ALP’s backflip on this issue. She went online in an attempt to clean up the mess that she herself created as a consequence of the Labor government’s betrayal of workers in the community sector by retreating from, by running a hundred miles from, their commitment to support and stand by low-paid community sector workers, who we know are predominantly women.

We on this side of the Senate often raise the issue of Labor’s spin over substance and the fact that Labor are happy to betray the workers and their principles if it means that they can hold on to power. Well, Labor’s rhetoric has well and truly caught up with them. I sympathise with the community sector employees and I say to them: you have every right to feel betrayed following the government’s submission to the test case. I say to Minister Chris Evans, who is now frantically putting out press releases justifying Labor’s position on the test case and demeaning all those who, like me, dare to criticise the Labor submission: all the press releases in the world will never detract from the ugly truth that the Labor Party of Australia and the Prime Minister of Australia have betrayed community sector employees. It is now a matter of record that the Australian Labor Party have dumped on their traditional supporters and that the unions are now furious with those in the Labor Party that they call turncoats. In fact, the unions have a very special word for those they call turncoats; they call them scabs. The unions must be looking at the government benches and wondering how a government with so many former union hacks as members and senators could turn its backs on them and betray them.

The Prime Minister of Australia admits her guilt. She admits that the government has betrayed low-paid community sector employees in the submission the government made to the ASU test case. If you go to the Prime Minister’s blog on the ALP website, this is what she says:

Yes, the Government has alerted FWA—

Fair Work Australia—

to the potential impact on the budget should a substantial wage increase be awarded.

In responding to that statement by the Prime Minister of Australia, community sector workers and their union are entitled to ask the Prime Minister why in 2009 she signed a heads of agreement with the ASU, pledging to support the ASU’s test case on pay equity for community sector employees, despite knowing at that time that the Labor government could never, ever afford to pay higher salaries if the ASU’s test case was successful. The ASU New South Wales Secretary, Sally McManus, made this statement about the government:

“They signed the heads of agreement in full knowledge of what it would cost …”

This exposes Labor’s hypocrisy and deception. Labor’s incompetence, ineptitude and negligent financial management was the same last year, in 2009, when the Prime Minister of Australia signed off on the heads of agreement, as it is now, when the Labor Party have been exposed because they had to put in their submission. Prime Minister Gillard knew last year the financial implications of supporting the test case, but she went ahead and signed the heads of agreement anyway because she knew at the time that she needed to get the support of those workers for the Labor Party. That was in the full knowledge that her government would never, ever honour their commitment, due to their financial incompetence. I say it again: the Prime Minister of Australia signed the agreement with the ASU, knowing full well that her signature on the document was worthless because her government would not in a million years be able to afford any pay rise that might actually flow from the test case.

To those on the other side who have been sent into this chamber in a desperate attempt to justify Labor’s position by saying that I and others have not read or perhaps did not understand the government’s submission, let me tell you what the ASU, community sector employees and I do understand. The Labor Party, in its submission, can dress it up with as much political rhetoric as it likes—

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

You’re going to support the claim, are you?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

but the truth in the submission—Senator Evans, you know it—is nicely summarised at point 11 of the executive summary. It says:

The government’s fiscal strategy—

I should give the government some credit; I thought they did not have a fiscal strategy—

will influence the government’s ability to support the sector in meeting additional wage costs.

In other words, Labor’s economic incompetence means that, despite throwing its support behind the ASU test case, they were never ever going to be in a position to fund any increase should Fair Work Australia award one. And I am not the only person who has this understanding.

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

You have no idea what you’re talking about.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am glad Senator Evans is here because Senator Evans has been on talkback radio. He has been criticising anyone who dares disagree—my goodness!—with the government’s position, by demeaning them and saying that clearly they do not have his intellectual capacity and that clearly they do not understand the submission that the government has given to Fair Work Australia.

Let us look at what ACOSS says in response to Senator Evans’s criticism. ACOSS’s chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, has responded that ACOSS has read the submission and that that has prompted ACOSS to accuse the government of backtracking. Community Employers WA is reported as saying the Gillard government has broken its election promise to the community sector and is in danger of seriously jeopardising the future of vital community services, which will disadvantage the community.

And the list goes on. Family Relationship Services Australia has also joined the voices expressing dismay at the government’s position, with Executive Director Samantha Page labelling the government’s submission as short-sighted. She says that, during the election campaign—forget about last year and 2009—there was a clear statement of support for the wage case and an acknowledgement that this would necessitate a review of federal government funding and that this is clearly not reflected in the government’s submission to Fair Work Australia.

Do you think the public believe the paltry excuses set out in the Prime Minister’s blog or in Minister Evans’s press releases about their submission to Fair Work Australia? Absolutely not. I went on line and had a look at the Prime Minister’s blog. The very first response to the blog is from an obvious Labor supporter—or, should I say, possibly now a former supporter of the Labor Party—who goes under the title of ‘LaborValues1’ and is from Redfern, New South Wales. Those on the other side will be glad the blogger is not from Victoria. It was posted yesterday at 4.23 pm.

Brett Mason (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Universities and Research) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Read it out.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will. The blogger said:

I don’t think anyone was under the illusion that having social justice and equity was free! Everyone knows you have to PAY to do the right thing. Unfortunately it sounds like the Labor Party has walked away from core Labor values when it has sent a submission saying equity will cost too much. Phase it in; don’t confirm to the world that you don’t stand for anything.

That was just the first blog. Then there was a response this morning, again from New South Wales. The government will be very happy, yet again, that it was not from Victoria. This response is from ‘Dragonfly from Wollongong’ who says:

Shame Gillard Shame—

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

Dragonfly! This is what you call research, is it?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you mocking those people who blog on your site, Senator Evans? You are mocking everybody else; are you now mocking the people who bother to go onto your site and give you a bit of feedback? That is an absolute disgrace. I am telling you what this person said. You are the people who put the blog on the site—not me—in a desperate attempt to justify your position. The blogger said:

Shame Gillard Shame, or should that be sham?

The Acting Deputy President:

Order! Senator Cash, if you could direct your remarks through the chair that would be appreciated. I ask other senators to cease interjecting.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I shall. The blogger said:

Shame Gillard Shame, or should that be sham? Who do you think voted you in, largely, in their misplaced view you might do something for them, female voters; predominately in the caring industries...

And then there is more. Then there is a statement from the Diversity Council of Australia, who said of Labor’s betrayal:

Unfortunately this progress—

in reducing the gender pay gap—

has been dealt a blow with the federal government withdrawing its support for the funding component of the ASU test case.

And then there are the further very telling comments from the ASU secretary Sally McManus, who has said of Labor’s backflip, of Labor’s act of treachery:

It goes to that deeper thing—what does the Labor Party stand for? If it doesn’t stand for equal pay what on earth does it stand for?

This is what the Labor Party stands for. It stands for betrayal, deceit, treachery and disloyalty when it comes to slamming those people in the community whom it says that it supports. Those opposite should all be hanging their heads in shame. I hope every one of you on that side stood up in caucus and told the Prime Minister that she had a problem, because if you did not you are all weak— (Time expired)