Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, Mr Speaker. The member for Warringah would have never acceded to these concessions. And, by the way, while I am at it, neither would have the former minister for employment, Senator Abetz. They would not have accepted these concessions.

The reality is: the reason why the government backflipped on these matters and changed, fundamentally, the character of the bill—and, indeed, the character of the regulator—is because this has always been about one job, and that is the Prime Minister's job. He has to pass something through the Senate. And, as a result, he has caved in on one matter after the other. We watched it last night, and we watched it this morning. In relation to—

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