Barry Haase (Kalgoorlie, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Is the minister aware that the Australian Mines and Metals Association has estimated that abolishing Australian workplace agreements could result in Australia losing $9.8 billion in export revenue each year? What is the minister’s response?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kalgoorlie for his question. In answering it, I note that the unemployment rate in the electorate of Kalgoorlie stands at 3.4 per cent—3.4 per cent in that vast electorate covering much of Western Australia. That is good news for tens of thousands of workers and the families in the electorate of Kalgoorlie.

The member for Kalgoorlie asked me about an estimate from the Australian Mines and Metals Association—the association which represents all major mining and resource operators in this country and therefore an association which is very much at the core of the economic success of Australia at the present time. AMMA has estimated that the resources sector alone in Australia would lose between $6.6 billion and $9.9 billion of export revenue annually if Australian workplace agreements were abolished—up to almost $10 billion annually in lost revenue by this policy to abolish Australian workplace agreements.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let’s make it a cool trillion!

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

The member for Melbourne is warned!

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have a robust economy which has been created by good economic management, by dint of hard work of this government and the people of Australia, and that has led to these sorts of outcomes for the Australian economy and Australians. Yet at every turn the Leader of the Opposition, the Labor Party and the unions have opposed the reforms that have brought about this economic powerhouse in Australia. On the one hand we have the opposition opposing all the reforms that have brought about economic success to Australia and on the other hand we have the Howard government putting in place a framework of opportunity that has been to the benefit of Australian workers and their families.

For families this has meant improved wages; it has meant 165,000 new jobs created in the last eight months in Australia—not just the 3.4 per cent unemployment rate in the electorate of Kalgoorlie. We have seen people making use of expanded opportunities for themselves and being increasingly prepared to take risks in expanding their businesses—small businesses, microbuisnesses, medium businesses and large businesses. If we want to continue to enjoy the fruits of this prosperity in Australia, we have to be prepared to allow people to succeed—to allow people to get out and have a go, as they have over the last 10 years. That is what Australians are doing increasingly because of the economic framework that has been put in place in this country. Yet the Leader of the Opposition has recommitted the Labor Party to abolishing Australian workplace agreements, which, in a single stroke, would wipe out up to $10 billion worth of export revenue from the resource sector of Australia.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The reaction of members opposite paints a very stark picture. They are prepared to joke about and mock the mining industry in Australia—one which, on the other hand, they claim is the basis of our economic performance at the present time. Why would they abolish these agreements? We heard again yesterday—even before the new Leader of the Opposition had been selected by the Labor Party caucus—Sharan Burrow on the airwaves saying clearly, ‘There won’t be any change in the industrial relations policy.’ We have had John Robertson and Joe de Bruyn, all the heavies from the labour movement, saying, ‘Kevin Rudd, the Leader of the Opposition, will do what we tell him.’ This would be disastrous for Australia. Labor cannot be trusted to keep the Australian economy strong. The reality is that there may be a new leader but it is the same old Labor.