Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I tell you what: I wasn’t choking on a glass of contact lenses—the member for Rankin has gone red. The member for Rankin went on to say that the unfair dismissal laws were a lawyers’ picnic—he would know something about that. So I thought: ‘Amen. The Labor Party at long last have seen that their job-destroying unfair dismissal laws are bad for small business,’ but then I picked up the transcript of ABC Radio in Brisbane—Madonna King; it is classic reading. Madonna King to the member for Rankin:

You’re telling Labor Party frontbenchers that they should exempt unfair dismissal laws but you don’t have an answer on that yet. Is that what you’re saying?

The member for Rankin:

No, I have not said that in the speech. I have not said—

Madonna King: No, I don’t care what you said in the speech. What is the situation?

The ABC is asking legitimate questions. The transcript continues:

Emerson: I’m saying to you right now in answering your question that I have not said either in the speech or on your program that we are exempting small business.

Madonna King: I don’t understand why you didn’t say this when I spoke to you a couple of hours ago about doing this interview.

Hang on—saying one thing off air and another thing on air? Hello! It is compelling reading. It is quite an engaging conversation. If you need contact lenses, get a microscope and have a look at this. It continues:

Madonna King: You’re being a little bit tricky here, with respect, Dr Emerson, because I read you those parts of the report and at no point did you say that any of it was inaccurate. What have you changed in the last two hours?

At any rate, it finishes with Madonna King saying:

I think it might be better if we have a chat when you’ve made a decision on how to deal with small business.

Amen to that! That is our position. We believe that business creates jobs, not government. We believe that the unfair dismissal laws have been an impediment to job creation by small business. We believe small business is the engine room of the Australian economy, and we believe that the best thing we can do for Australian small business and for job creation is to get out of the way, keep the unions out of the way and help to grow an Australian workplace.

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