Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. I refer to the minister’s last answer and his direct and clear refusal to recommence and publicly release the government’s analysis of Australian workplace agreements. The question is: why? Why is the government covering up the impact of Australian workplace agreements on hardworking Australian families? Why are you doing that?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If you believe the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, we are in a conspiracy to cover up what is in an AWA. The only problem for the Labor Party is that at the end of the year one million people will be engaged in that conspiracy with us, because there will be one million AWAs out there, and one in five Western Australians—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Gillard interjecting

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

Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition has asked her question.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Gillard interjecting

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

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition is warned!

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By the end of the year, one in five workers in Western Australia will be on an AWA. Are you saying that they are part of that conspiracy of silence, or a conspiracy of cover-up? At the end of the year more than two million Australian workers would have signed up willingly to agreements under the new industrial relations regime. What the Labor Party fails to appreciate is that we are about trying to keep the economy prosperous. We are about trying to keep the economy strong.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The point of order is on relevance. My question is about information the government has and refuses to release. Can the minister answer that? Why the cover-up?

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

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume her seat. She was asking questions about why, and I think the minister is very much in order.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What the Labor Party does not understand is that, in order to keep the economy strong, in order to keep the economy prosperous, governments have to make decisions that are in the national interest and not in the interests of the union bosses. Four out of five workers in Australia choose not to join the unions because the unions are more about the interests of the union bosses than they are about the workers. We are about the interests of the workers. The Australian Bureau of Statistics latest data figures have indicated that since the introduction of the new laws real wages have gone up 1.5 per cent. In the 13 years of Labor, real wages went backwards 1.8 per cent. The ABS statistics illustrate that since the laws were introduced the number of jobs created—

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker. I rise on a point of order. The point of order is on relevance. My question relates to information held by the Office of the Employment Advocate—

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

The member will resume her seat. I have been listening closely to the minister and I believe he is relevant.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The most authoritative figures come from the ABS, and the ABS figures indicate that, since the introduction of our new laws, wages are up 1.5 per cent, 263,000 jobs have been created in Australia—and nearly 90 per cent of those jobs are full time—and industrial disputation is at its lowest level since 1913. We all know that, when it comes to industrial disputation, because the Labor Party are beholden to the union bosses, they want to see more strikes in Australia, not fewer strikes.