Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

Well done! He has just shown, by either his connivance or his sheer ignorance, that a common law contract in his language means the old award system. So this is either a collective agreement that is demanded or an award going back to the Keating days of industrial relations in Australia—going back to the 104 working days lost per 1,000 employees when he was minister for employment; going back to the 10.9 per cent unemployment rate when this man was allegedly responsible for employment in this country.

But why is he doing this? This is the most important question. The member for Franklin let the cat out of the bag last week. I think most people regard the member for Franklin as a decent and honourable man, and he let the cat out of the bag. He said that the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition was under pressure from the mates in the New South Wales Right. What happened? A few months ago, John Robertson from Unions New South Wales started a campaign against the Leader of the Opposition. So the Leader of the Opposition rushed off to their conference and said, ‘We’ll rip up Australian workplace agreements.’ Now there is another campaign against the Leader of the Opposition, which the member for Franklin has honestly told us about, and the Leader of the Opposition has gone out once again and said, ‘I’ll do the bidding of the unions in New South Wales.’ This has nothing to do with the national interest; it would destroy the national interest. This is simply about looking after the vested interests of the Leader of the Opposition.

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