Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

I have been. Indeed, I am very surprised that the member for Throsby has now entered the chamber, not knowing what has gone on in here for the last 15 minutes of a genuine contribution to this bill. We say to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, to the House and to the Australian people: this bill is just another admission of failure by a government who likes to talk a lot but who has not delivered anywhere near its rhetoric. The Prime Minister said: 'I believe the fair work system is right. We worked hard to get the balance right and I believe the Fair Work Act is right.' If we had a fair work system operating as the Prime Minister said, we would not be debating this bill in this place today. We would be debating more substantial legislation dealing with genuine problems, such as Labor's deficit and Labor's mistreatment of our economy. This is a bad bill. It will add to the record of this government. They pretend to represent workers when all they do is represent the filthy trade union officials who are ripping off workers in our economy.

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