Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the statement of Reno Lia, an electrical worker, who told Labor’s IR task force:

I’d say I’ve worked three of every four Saturdays over the last 20 years. Now I’d be telling lies if I said I didn’t do it for the money ...

Overtime is a very, very big issue. A very big component of making ends meet ...

As much as I make jest about the fact that the wife goes to Knox City and spends all our money, I’m quite proud of the fact that we have got a little bit of money for her to go and do that. I’m wrapped that the kids do have sporting activities.

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

Order! The member will come to his question.

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker; I am about to. Prime Minister, isn’t it the case that, under the government’s industrial relations legislation, overtime payments and penalty rates are no longer protected, and this threatens the aspirations of families such as the Lias?

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

I must confess, in reply to the question asked by the honourable member, that I am at a distinct disadvantage because I do not get invited to meetings of the Labor Party’s IR task force. I am quite certain that if I were invited to meetings of the task force I would be able to inject a bit of intellectual rigour into what they are debating. And do you know what I would ask that person and also the gentleman referred to in the question asked by the Leader of the Opposition? I would ask those gentlemen: do you recall 17 per cent interest rates? Do you recall that in 1996 industrial disputes were monumentally higher?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Deputy 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 question about overtime payments and penalties, which the government is trying to get rid of.

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

I thank the member for Grayndler for explaining his point of order. I have been listening closely to the Prime Minister. It was a lengthy question, and the Prime Minister is in order.

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

I was asked about the proceedings of the ALP’s industrial relations task force and I was suggesting, Mr Speaker, that if they asked the right questions they would get completely objective answers. As for the questions that ought to be asked, they ought to be asked: what has happened to productivity? What has happened to employment? What has happened to taxation? What has happened to interest rates? What has happened to the general prosperity of Australia? What has happened to real wages? I would be asking what the real wage rise was between 1983 and 1996. I would have to truthfully answer, if I were a member, ‘1.3 per cent’. I would ask what it was between 1996 and 2006. Truthfully, I would have to say ‘16.8 per cent’. I have finished my answer, Mr Speaker.