Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I reflect on the debate we have had here today I remember that there was a time when the Labor Party had a proud history, a proud goal, of opening up the Australian economy. I am quite happy to say that my family voted for the Labor Party of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating—a party that was prepared to open up the economy to the opportunities of a more globalised world. But the Labor Party of today is not that party and clearly the contribution of members here shows us that the Labor Party of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating is long dead. This China-Australia Free Trade Agreement that many members have mentioned is an agreement that will create thousands of jobs for Australians and future generations of Australians. In China we have one billion people coming into the middle class, and they want to buy not only our resources and our agricultural products but particularly our services, opening up opportunities to the next generation to sell products and services into a marketplace of 1 billion people, from a country of only 23 million people. Former ministers, people like Simon Crean, understand that reality. I think they must be hurting to see a Labor Party in a position today that is running away from the traditions of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating—campaigning against something that will open up our economy, create tens of thousands of jobs and provide opportunities for new generations of Australians. The modern Labor Party is campaigning against that.

Some members mentioned a union campaign around this. I have met the union leaders involved in this campaign. I have put these questions to them. Labor members would know this and should check this out themselves. When under these agreements a worker is hired in the industries that these Labor members across here are talking about, there is a three-step process In the first step, there will not be that word 'mandatory' when it comes to labour force testing, but in the second step there is. So the union has created this fear campaign based on a lie, saying that mandatory labour force testing will not happen before a worker is hired. That is a lie. The question that I put to the union members—

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