Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

If they did not get it wrong, does it stand to reason that they had to get it right?

Senator Jacinta Collins interjecting—

I do not know what the parliamentary secretary had for dinner, but it clearly was not a brain stimulant. I ask her: if the panel did not get it wrong, does it stand to reason therefore that they got it right? If they got it right, why is the government wilfully not following their recommendation, which the government accepts is right? Explain it to the Australian people. They are entitled to an explanation, especially in circumstances where it is not just the coalition banging on about this. It is the widest coalition of support that I think you could find in this country, from the Maritime Union of Australia to the ACTU, all of the employer organisations, the Fair Work Act Review Panel and the President of Fair Work Australia itself.

And can I tell you that the issue here is not about why we need a name change. It is that the organisation has become discredited. It is a damaged brand, courtesy of Mr Craig Thomson and the Health Services Union scandal. So what does Labor do? It says, 'Do you know what the damaging part of the title is? It is the name 'Australia'. You've got to get rid of 'Australia'; that's the damaging part of the name. Get rid of 'Australia', replace it with the word 'commission' and, as a result, everybody will forget about Craig Thomson and the Health Services Union.'

The president wants the name changed because it is discredited and the panel has recommended it. Yet here we have a parliamentary secretary completely and utterly unable to explain, given this vast body of support—and there is no dissent about the name change to delete the name 'Fair Work'—where the opposition has come from other than the vanity of this Prime Minister.