Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The fact is that the minister has refused to give precisely the guarantee that Labor insisted John Howard give. It is precisely the same question, and no-one on the Labor front bench—not the Prime Minister, not the minister and not her representative in the Senate—will come clean and admit to the Australian public who is going to be worse off under these industrial relations laws. They have done no economic modelling. They have done no analysis at all of the impact on unemployment. The Australian people need to understand the fraud that has been exposed by the 37 amendments that have now been moved by the government to their own legislation. The minister so dismissively said the bill was going to be delivered in full and in whole—but, no, that is not the case 37 amendments later. The fraud that has been exposed is that Labor have not delivered what they promised. Labor are keeping individual statutory contracts. You can call them what you like. They are keeping individual statutory contracts under these amendments. They have broadened the reach of those contracts so that more workers can be offered individual contracts—not fewer. This is not what you went to the election with. They voted last night to retain the Work Choices unfair dismissal laws—an extraordinary outcome. The minister had been going on in this House saying, ‘Employers just want to sack good workers for no reason.’ Those were her words. What an extraordinary statement, as if good workers can be sacked for no reason. She is suggesting, and demonising employers around the country—

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