Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a person who ran a small business prior to being elected to the parliament—I ran a legal firm and employed many people—I have to say that good employees are valued employees. My experience as an employer—and it is also the experience of my constituents who talk to me about these matters and have made it clear to me—is that, when an employee is worth while and productive, employers will go out of their way to ensure that that employee remains on the payroll. The last thing a business wants is instability and to lose valued employees who have corporate knowledge. I cannot support the member for Gorton’s motion because I think the Work Choices legislation is a very positive initiative for Australian working men and women, as well as a positive initiative from the point of view of the Australian economy.

It is tremendous to see that there has been significant job growth in Australia since the introduction of the Work Choices legislation. Our unemployment rate has dropped to the lowest level in over 30 years. I am proud to be part of a party that supports a government that has not only done an outstanding job in managing the economy during a decade in office but also shown the conviction and strength of character to look beyond the barrage of hollow criticisms about these new laws—from the ACTU and members opposite—and go ahead and introduce what has proven to be and will continue to be a valuable and economically sound new industrial relations system.

I mentioned in the House last year that the government will not apologise for Work Choices—and, as the positive results continue to flow in, that clearly remains the case. It is regrettable that those opposite have waged a publicity battle against this important legislation, which has helped to create a climate of fear and uncertainty amongst the very people the union movement and the Labor Party claim to support: workers and their families.

As radio broadcaster Alan Jones noted several months ago in his talkback show on 11 August, the union movement has claimed that Work Choices will all but lead to the end of the world. What a ridiculous statement! It is unforgivable that the campaign against Work Choices so blatantly plays on the ambitions and hopes of workers, using them as pawns in a politically motivated campaign to smear a workable and successful new system. As Mr Jones so cleverly articulated: is the ALP genuinely concerned about the worker and the truth or is it just using the worker to score a few political points?

The campaign is running out of steam and the labour movement seems to be getting worried. Some 205,000 new jobs have been created since the Work Choices system came into play, with the greater proportion of them—some 184,000—being full-time positions.

The coalition government’s dedication to ensuring that rural workers are able to find jobs has been further demonstrated by a program that saw some 14 job seekers from Coffs Harbour being flown to Western Australia to go straight into jobs in the construction industry. It is a program that matches unemployed people living in areas with few jobs to positions in areas that are looking for workers. In addition, wages have grown significantly since 1996 under the coalition’s leadership—in fact, by more than 16 per cent, compared to a paltry 0.3 per cent growth over the 13 years of Labor government between 1983 and 1996—and have continued to grow since the introduction of Work Choices.

The evidence in support of Work Choices mounts up. We have seen the TV and print advertisements that were designed to shoot holes in Work Choices by showing us supposedly real people facing real risks due to the new laws. These people and their situations were all investigated by the Office of Workplace Services, which found they were all dodgy. In one of the ads, an abattoir worker claimed he was being sacked due to Work Choices. However, the investigation revealed that the abattoir was doing it tough financially and was forced to make the tough decision to avoid going under. Work Choices had nothing to do with it. I have lots of other instances but, regrettably, time is short.

Work Choices has proven to be a major headache for the opposition. They claimed it would rob Australian workers, but, to the contrary, it has in fact delivered job growth and continued wages growth. Work Choices is making Australian families better off. Labor claimed it would bring a wave of job losses, but the only examples brought forward were found to be bogus. Work Choices has been a good thing for Australia and will continue to be so in the future. (Time expired)

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