Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for his question. He, like me, is proud to be part of the Labor Party, which is committed to protecting workers' rights. That is why the first act of this government when it came in was to remove Work Choices and implement Fair Work Australia, an initiative that was steered by the current Prime Minister in exhaustive negotiations with all of the parties to get the balance back into the system that the other side had stripped away. It was built around the principle of recognising the importance of collective bargaining, of requiring the parties to bargain in good faith and ensuring that, where differences could not be resolved, they would go to an independent umpire. Not only did this reintroduce fairness to the system; it also underpinned the prosperity that this nation has experienced over the last three years, with increased jobs—some 740,000, as the Treasurer has talked about, with half a million more in prospect. We have seen a fall in industrial disputes and we have seen economic growth and wages growth.

I am also asked if there are any threats to the system. Yes, there are. They have already begun in New South Wales, hardly a couple of months into the term of a new coalition government. Last Thursday, legislation was passed in the New South Wales parliament that will enable the government to direct by regulation the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission—in other words, stripping out the role of the independent umpire. The first regulation that appeared under this legislation was gazetted on Monday, and it has put a cap on the wages of state employees. This has undermined the very principles that we have fought for, and it had nothing to do with what they promised during the election campaign because Premier O'Farrell said, 'We are committed to retaining the current system.' How many times do we hear it said on the other side that they are not committed to returning to Work Choices?

The threat does not stop with the New South Wales parliament. Last Wednesday, in this parliament, the member for Kooyong entered this debate. His contribution to this debate, after going through a litany of criticism about what was wrong with Work Choices, was to say that it is now time to 'speak out for change'. He then gave Michelle Grattan a backgrounder indicating that he was part of the push to try and get the Leader of the Opposition to return to Work Choices, to give them more flexibility. But, if there was any doubt about what the intention of this new ginger group is on industrial relations, it turns out that the member for Kooyong is also a supporter of the return to the presidency of the Liberal Party in Victoria of one Peter Reith. Remember Peter Reith—the man of the rottweilers, the man of the balaclavas?

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