Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

It doesn't stop you from being a member of a union, comrade, and you ought to be one. Let's be very clear: we will not have the demonisation of Australian workers or their representative bodies, the trade unions of this country. We will not take being demonised by the government because we have put up fair proposals to address the stupidity of the penalty rate decision by the Fair Work Commission. We have the interests of Australian workers and Australian families in mind. The piece of legislation before us is deficient and needs to be strengthened. We say to the government: you have the opportunity to do this, why don't you do it? Accept the proposals which are being put forward by the Labor Party and you will improve the bill. By improving the bill, you will improve the protections for Australian workers in workplaces right around the country. That is a very important thing for you to understand, even though you do not want to do it because you have a history of attacking the most vulnerable people in the community. The government are doing it again in the budget from last night: they are attacking young workers. And now we know there are 100,000 fewer jobs being projected through the budget as it was announced by the Treasurer last night. We have a responsibility to make the changes that this bill asks for, but we should also be making sure that government members understand the merits of the arguments being put here by the opposition and support the opposition amendments.

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