Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

And you share that view and you endorse that view. The second thing I say to Mr Chaney is that he should say to the Leader of the Opposition what he says in his adverts. When you read the BCA adverts—the ‘four steps’ we need—is there anything in there that says, ‘But if you don’t do these things with AWAs, the Western world, the Western economy and the Australian economy as we know it will crumble’? I say to the business community publicly what I say to them privately: you should focus on this, you should accept our offer of consultation, you should accept our offer of flexibility, you should look at what we are saying—overall advantage and the combination of our approach will ensure ongoing flexibility. And the minister at the table should resolve and resort to having an argument on the facts, not to scurrilous personal slurs against me or the Leader of the Opposition. If he wants to say that we are in the pockets of unions or that we have said this or we have said that, then he is no more and no less than a toady of corporate Australia. If that is the level of debate he wants to have, that is fine, but he should address the facts: the government’s attack on the minimum wage, the government’s attack on conditions and entitlements, no productivity benefits, complacency about a whole range of economic issues, a massive foreign debt, a massive trade deficit and a massive collapse in exports. But the Western world will collapse if we cannot have a 10-year-old statutory independent contract, which half a million people out of 10 million have. It is an economic, a social and a political nonsense. (Time expired)

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