Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The motion moved by the member for Brand needs to be totally rejected this afternoon. The Leader of the Opposition is asking this House to take note of what the Prime Minister has said recently on workplace relations. What we really should be doing is taking note of what the member for Brand and others opposite have said on industrial relations. For months the ALP has been saying that the Work Choices legislation is extreme and damaging to our nation. In fact, the only thing that has been extreme is the ALP’s language. We have had extreme language, similar to what has taken place and been stated in this chamber for the last 10 years, as to how this nation and the Australian workers will be disadvantaged as a result of our industrial relations policy changes.

The member for Brand beats his chest and tells the Australian people, ‘I will rip up these laws.’ We heard him say this. But what we have not heard the Leader of the Opposition tell us is what he is offering as an alternative—until, of course, the other day. Then out of the blue, without any consultation with his own backbench and his own shadow ministers, he said: ‘My alternative is that we are going to return to the bad old days. We are going to return to the days of a regulated labour market. We are going to return to the days when awards regulated every minute of every worker’s day. We are going to return to the days when individual aspiration was stifled.’ The member for Brand stands up at various opportunities and says that our policies and AWAs stifle the aspirational voters of this country. The only thing that will stifle aspiration is a return to those days when we had a regulated labour market. If the member for Brand has any doubt about this, he only has to go down to the Fremantle docks in the electorate of Fremantle. I know it quite well; I grew up there. All he has to do is go down to Austal and see the opportunities that are being created in those dockyards and the various employment growths that have taken place. Westpoll itself has said that the people of Western Australia recognise that AWAs have been good for the state, and, in fact, during the time of this government being in power we have seen the unemployment rate of WA go down into figures which have been absolutely unheard of—below the four per cent mark.

What we are seeing, through the member for Brand’s claims that he will rip up AWAs, is a Labor Party that wants to return this country to record unemployment. We see a Labor Party that wants us to return to massive interest rates and a recession. The only way that the member for Brand can guarantee through legislation that no worker will be worse off if he rips up AWAs is if there is a massive increase in unemployment. There will be job losses as a result of what he is trying to do. There are people out there who have signed agreements to suit their individual circumstances.

The member for Brand’s position will be to return to the days when the economy of this country goes down the gurgler once again with record unemployment and, with it, increasing interest rates. We need to ask ourselves: why is the member for Brand asking us to return to an outdated era? Is it that he simply wants to secure his own employment? That is about the only job that is going to be secured through his policy change—his own position. As the Australian newspaper claimed on Friday last week, Labor’s prime interest is to promote collective bargaining in the workplace in which unions would have bargaining rights.

I say to all the small business people out there: if you have any concerns about the industrial relations system through the Work Choices legislation we have introduced, think about what the ALP’s alternative position is. They are basically saying that, through law, they will be guaranteeing that every union official will come into your building and be able to negotiate on behalf of the workforce, whether or not they are unionised. That is what a return to collective bargaining means. There is this whole concept of good faith bargaining. It is a great little term that is being used. We are going to have a highly regulated labour force. (Time expired)

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