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 and relates to my last question but not his last answer. Doesn’t this Treasury document prove that the government has discussed industrial relations policy options post Work Choices, given that the document sets out unfinished business after the Work Choices bill was made public? Is the government covering this up because the government does not want the Australian people to know about its plans for more unfair industrial relations laws?

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

I obviously have not seen that document. I am happy if the Deputy Leader of the Opposition wants to give me a copy of it. It is a Treasury document. I am familiar with other documents relating to economic management, such as the OECD report that said that the prescriptive, job-destroying policies of the Labor Party, such as the reintroduction of the unfair dismissal laws, are bad for workers and that the people who are most disadvantaged by prescriptive labour laws are in fact women and young people, particularly those who have been out of the workforce for a long time.

I am also familiar with the most recent testimony of the Governor of the Reserve Bank who said that it was a threat to heavily reregulate the labour market because it could put upward pressure on inflation and therefore upward pressure on interest rates. And I am very familiar with the economic data that indicates that everything we have done in industrial relations over the last few years is helping to deliver more jobs and better pay.

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

Order! The minister will resume his seat. Has the minister completed his answer?

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

Yes.