Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Minister for Social Inclusion. Would the Deputy Prime Minister detail the protections offered for working Australians under the government’s Fair Work Bill and specifically the arrangements for protection against unfair dismissal? What impact do specific variations to key measures have on working Australians?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for his question. I know that he wants to see fairness for Australian workers in his electorate. As members of this House would now be aware, the Senate is considering the Fair Work Bill—working through it amendment by amendment. But as members of this parliament would also be aware, the key debate emerging in the Fair Work Bill is the debate caused by the Liberal Party around unfair dismissal provisions. Let us be very clear about this. In 2007, the Labor Party took to the election a crystal clear policy about unfair dismissals—published, circulated, crystal clear—and that policy said:

A Rudd Labor Government will introduce a simple system for determining who can bring an unfair dismissal claim based on three circumstances:

• an employee who is employed by an employer who employs 15 or more employees must have been employed for 6 months;
• an employee who is employed by an employer who employs fewer than 15 employees must have been employed for 12 months;

That is crystal clear policy and the policy that was in our election policy Forward with Fairness. As the Liberal Party twist and turn to try and clutch onto Work Choices and its continuation, the Liberal Party are contesting the ability of the Rudd Labor government to honour its promise to the Australian people. Extraordinarily, today, we have seen the Liberal leader in the Senate suggest that, really, this all does not matter very much, that if the parliament adopted the Liberal Party’s amendment it would not matter very much. I quote the Liberal leader in the Senate, ‘Those extra five employees, I do not think will make much difference in the minds of fair thinking Australians.’ That is what he had to say. When it comes to the Liberal Party, never watch what they say, always watch what they do. Earlier this week, I exposed in this parliament the planned Liberal Party redundancy rip-off, where they had put forward amendments in the Senate which, if adopted, would have ripped redundancy rights off 200,000 working Australians—a rip-off of 200,000 working Australians that the Liberal Party cooked up this week.

On the amendments that they have cooked up on unfair dismissal, as they twist and turn to keep Work Choices, let’s just be very clear about what this difference means. I am advised that we are talking about a difference for 700,000 employees—700,000 employees that the Liberal Party amendment would make a difference for in terms of their rights on unfair dismissal. So, when you are listening to the Liberal Party, never listen to what they say, because telling the Australian people the truth about workplace relations is something they have never done; look for the facts. The facts are: what they are proposing in the Senate would change arrangements as proposed by the Labor Party for 700,000 working Australians. Well, we will not let them rip Australians off from opposition the way they ripped Australians off from government. We will not let them do that. The party of rip-offs in government is becoming the party of rip-offs in opposition. We will not let them do it.

As the Prime Minister says, as they embrace Work Choices, as they revel in the rip-offs, the Liberal Party are divided between the purists, who were out loud and proud as Work Choices supporters, and the pretenders. Of course, we know the member for Goldstein is one of the purists, because he was out today and, in relation to the Fair Work Bill, he said, ‘All of these initiatives that go beyond Work Choices are all things to increase the power of the unions, and it is unacceptable.’

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That’s right.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition shouts, ‘That’s right.’ So the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has just verified in the parliament that the Liberal Party are opposed to any initiative that goes beyond Work Choices. I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for confirming in the parliament today that they do not want to see any modicum of fairness; they want to stick with Work Choices. She, I acknowledge, is a purist.

Then, of course, we have seen some of the pretenders out and about today. Most particularly, we have seen the shadow minister for finance, Senator Coonan. She is a pretender. She said, ‘We have said all along that we recognise the government’s mandate,’ while she walks in and out of the Senate voting on amendments that are purpose designed to deny that mandate and keep Work Choices.

But let’s come to the biggest pretender of them all, the Leader of the Opposition, who now faces a fundamental question of character as this parliament deals with the Fair Work Bill, because this is about the rights of working Australians. It is about whether the Liberal Party are out there publicly, loudly endorsing Work Choices or whether they are scurrying around quietly supporting it. But it has also become a test of the honesty of the Leader of the Opposition, a question of character for him, because last December he said: ‘Labor took a proposal to change the unfair dismissal laws to the election and won, so we must respect that.’ Having uttered those words, there are only two choices for the Leader of the Opposition: he can stand up and say, ‘In December I did not tell the Australian people the truth because I am not a man who tells the truth,’ or he can ensure that the Liberal Party in the Senate vote as he instructed them to vote last December. There are only two choices here for the Leader of the Opposition: he can expose himself to the Australian people as a dishonest man or he can instruct his senators to vote for the Fair Work Bill. We wait to see what choice he is going to make.