Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Corangamite for his assistance but I do not need it. One deals with enterprise bargaining and one deals with a technical registration problem for federal unions, which has particularly impacted upon those who represent our police. The Labor Party will support both of those amendments and we certainly will vote for the bill overall with those two amendments in there, but I do restate the shambles that this legislative process has been, that those amendments were not in the original bill presented to the House on Monday.

I will conclude by saying: Work Choices has to go. Even as amended by this bill, it is still a gross unfairness for Australian families. The passage of this bill does no harm and, given that the passage of this bill might assist even one worker, Labor will not stand in the way of that worker getting that assistance. We actually care about employees in this country. We care about them every day, not just in the days leading up to an election. That is the difference between this side of politics and the other side. Labor believes in fairness at work each and every day; we believe in that fairness being protected—

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