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

I am afraid from his question that the Leader of the Opposition is betraying how little he knows about this important area of economic reform. What I was required to do in my capacity as the relevant minister was to work with state and territory colleagues around the country to enter an agreement which would enable parliaments around the country to enact model laws and then enable those model laws to be followed up with the required codes and regulations, which would mean that wherever you were in the country, wherever you worked, as a working person you would have the benefits of the same protections and standards and that, as an employer, you would not have to engage with different regimes in different parts of the country.

The quote that the Leader of the Opposition is referring to is my quote about what happened at the ministerial council the day that we struck this historic agreement. That was a very important moment of microeconomic reform, 30 years in the seeking, which was then delivered through that agreement between ministers, and that agreement is being actioned. The only problem, of course, with actioning that agreement has been the issues of the Liberal government in Western Australia, which wanted in part to stand outside the system. I say to the Leader of the Opposition—

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