Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Who did say that? I repeat:

… Labor took a proposal to change the unfair dismissal laws to the election and won … So we must respect that.

The Leader of the Opposition said that, which just means it is even more amazing that the Liberal Party yesterday went to war in its party room on whether or not to continue to support Work Choices. And the Leader of the Opposition emerged from that war in the party room, the war of which there is a blow-by-blow description in today’s newspapers, at war with himself, because, despite saying those words, of course now it is a claim of the Liberal Party that we should change our unfair dismissal laws in the Fair Work Bill to make it easier for workers to be sacked.

They emerged from the war in the Liberal party room talking about amendments to the Fair Work Bill, but they studiously avoided answering the question: if their amendments are not accepted, what happens next? Do they vote for the Fair Work Bill or do they vote to keep Work Choices? Well, fortunately, there is one honest man in the Liberal Party. I know it is a controversial call and I apologise to my colleagues if I have got it wrong, but the one honest man in the Liberal Party is a senator for South Australia, Cory Bernardi—he writes a good newsletter, as I understand it. Today the one honest man in the Liberal Party, Cory Bernardi, said this: ‘If we can’t fix the legislation we are right to vote against it.’

Well, when the Liberal Party emerged from its party room yesterday at war with itself and with no clear position about what it was going to do next, how is it that Senator Bernardi today can be so certain of what the Liberal strategy is? Maybe, just maybe, the Liberal strategy was worked out at La Rustica last night when the shadow Treasurer, the salesman for Work Choices, had dinner with the member for Higgins, the architect of Work Choices. Maybe the Work Choices strategy of the Liberal Party was worked out then, or just maybe they were having dinner to discuss their support for the Leader of the Opposition.

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