Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Doesn’t the government’s own Employment Advocate confirm that 100 per cent of Australian Workplace Agreements, AWAs—that is, all of them—exclude at least one protected award condition, 64 per cent exclude leave loading, 63 per cent exclude penalty rates, 52 per cent exclude shiftwork loadings and 16 per cent expressly exclude all protected award conditions? Prime Minister, how can this lead to anything other than a 2c an hour wages race to the bottom?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the member for Perth knows, those same figures confirm that there have been very significant wage increases over and above the awards under all of those things. The member for Perth, like the Leader of the Opposition, is very good in his selective quotation.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Childcare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Plibersek interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Sydney has been warned.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

But nothing can alter the fact that 10 years ago you said the same thing; 10 years ago you said that living standards were going to fall and 10 years later Australians are better off than they have ever been. The problem that the opposition have is that they hate the prosperity of today’s Australians. They resent the fact that it is this government that has delivered unparalleled prosperity to working Australians. They resent the fact that the very hardworking aspirational Australians are the very people who rejected you in 2001, who rejected you in 2004 and, the way you are carrying on, who will reject you in even greater measure the next time they have an opportunity.

John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade. Would the Deputy Prime Minister outline to the House how Australia’s exporters have benefited from the government’s workplace relations reforms over the past decade? How are the new workplace relations reforms further assisting exporters to keep our economy strong and provide jobs in regional Australia? I ask: are there any alternative views?

Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee for his question. It is a well-known statistic that during the course of the last 10 or so years Australia’s exports have increased from $99 billion to $177 billion. There have been record exports of beef, lamb, iron ore and coal—all exports and horticultural products coming from the member for Mallee’s electorate and coming out of regional Australia. That is the powerhouse of Australian exporting.

The coalition government have undertaken some significant industrial relations reforms in the 10 years since we have been in office, and none more important than the reforms of 10 years ago, particularly the waterfront reform that took place around that time. We were languishing in international competitiveness scales at an average of 17 lifts of 20-foot equivalent containers per hour on our waterfront. We were being told we could not do any better, that it was impossible to improve. This government had the backbone to take on the challenge of reforming the waterfront, and today that 17 lifts an hour has moved to 28 lifts an hour. It has been one of the most important reforms. It has improved the efficiency and competitiveness of Australia’s export industries.

Our other workplace reforms during our term of office have helped to generate new jobs. Our exporting industries generate one in four jobs in regional Australia and one in five jobs across Australia. Our workplace relations reforms have helped create 1.8 million new jobs in Australia. Last week unemployment fell to 4.9 per cent in Australia, which is something that the Labor Party, when they were in office, could only dream about, let alone ever achieve. Over the weekend, we saw a new-found policy dimension of the Leader of the Opposition. He is going to completely abolish Australian workplace agreements where, on average, people on workplace AWAs are earning more today than people on certified agreements do.

At the end of last year, I heard an interesting case in point. The Leader of the Opposition should listen to this, because this is the effect his policies are going to have on one of Australia’s major export industries. Earlier this year or late last year, I visited Hamersley Iron, run by Rio Tinto in the Pilbara. The entire workforce is on individual workplace agreements. Twenty years ago, the productivity in that industry was 10,000 tonnes of iron ore per full-time employee. Today it is 41,000 tonnes. That entire workforce is very happy with the arrangements they have today, which have been negotiated between the company and the individual employees—and the Leader of the Opposition wants to rip this up.

He has picked up a policy from the playbook of the former member for Werriwa. The former member for Werriwa went to Western Australia in 2004 and told the mining industry about it, and they were aghast. Now the Leader of the Opposition has picked up this policy, because his prospects of staying on as Leader of the Opposition are shortening—to put it mildly. He has picked up this policy of Mark Latham’s and he is showing a distinct lack of judgment, as he did in the lead-up to the 2004 election when he said that Mark Latham was ready to be Prime Minister.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to Karen Palmer, who is in the public gallery today, who worked as a machine operator for 14 years, during which time she received no adverse comments from management about her performance. Is the Prime Minister aware that Karen was sacked on 29 May? Will the Prime Minister explain to Karen Palmer and all the other nans of Australia why she has lost her unfair dismissal rights and her job security as a result of the Prime Minister’s legislation?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Prime Minister has the call.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In relation to the lady referred to by the Leader of the Opposition, I am not aware, and nor could I be expected to be, of the individual employment circumstances of the thousands of Australians—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

no matter what the employment position may be of the circumstances of individuals, because there are thousands of people who go in and out of jobs every week. If those who sit opposite and yell their slogans stopped for a moment, they would understand that. I cannot and will not even attempt, because I am not in possession of the facts, to pass a judgment on the circumstances of that lady’s position.

What I am in a position to do, and to do with some authority, is to tell the parliament—and through the parliament, the Australian people—the aggregate jobs position under this government compared with the aggregate jobs position under the alternative government. I can tell the Australian people that unemployment has reached a 30-year low.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Under standing order 104, this was a specific question about an individual worker and her loss of unfair dismissal rights. If the Prime Minister wants to be asked a question about unemployment, he can be, but his answer is not relevant.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. What we are seeing from members opposite is deliberate disorderly conduct.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I put it to you that any fair-minded person watching this parliament would say—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will resume his seat.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Vamvakinou interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind the member for Calwell it is highly disorderly to interject when she is not in her own seat. She is warned.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can tell the Australian people that 1.8 million new jobs have been created by the coalition. I can tell the Australian people that real wages of Australian workers—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I am sure the Prime Minister will relate his answer back to the question too.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I was asked a question about employment conditions in Australia, and I am telling the parliament about them. I remind the Leader of the Opposition and those who sit opposite that real wages of Australian workers—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Prime Minister was not asked a question about unemployment. He was asked a question about an individual worker’s dismissal. If he does not know anything about it, he should conclude his answer and you should call the next question.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will rule on the Manager of Opposition Business’s point of order. The Prime Minister was also asked what he would say to such a person.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was also asked about unfair dismissal laws. I would say that, if the unfair dismissal regime we now have in Australia had obtained over the last 10 years, we would now have an even lower rate of unemployment.