Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I will be brief, because I am very keen to assist the business of the House today. But I cannot let the comments of the Attorney-General—the acting minister—go without making some response. What he said was not correct. If he could have been present for the debate yesterday in the Senate he would have heard that the new junior employment minister—granted he has only been in the job for a very short time—was completely unable to address the concerns that were raised by the opposition, the Greens and the Independent senators about the amendments. In relation to our own amendments, what they do in reality is alleviate the worst aspects of the so-called award modernisation process that is going to throw tens of thousands of Australians out of work. That is what we are trying to do. They are considered amendments. The government come back with this nonsense about unintended consequences; they come back with this nonsense, ‘Oh well it’s covered off in other areas.’ If it was, we quite frankly would not have needed to move the amendments.  Do not just listen to the opposition; listen to any of the industries that are going to be affected by these diabolical changes. This is a government that talks about creating jobs and about caring for the employment prospects of Australians, but then we see them come into this House and do things that directly destroy jobs. As I said, this debate has a long way to go.

Question agreed to.

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