House debates

Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Questions without Notice

Workplace Relations

3:21 pm

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

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, former political staffer and student union boss. I refer to the minister’s statement from 2 September:

You only have a policy if you’re going to change the law.

I also refer to his comment from 5 September that the Liberal Party would have an industrial relations policy at the forthcoming election. Minister, where is your policy and what changes aren’t you telling the Australian people about?

Photo of David HawkerDavid Hawker (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

Before calling the minister, I remind the Deputy Leader of the Opposition that she should not use the words ‘you’ or ‘your’.

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

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will see our policy well before election day—I tend to recall those words from the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, who seems to be a little embarrassed and is going red. What I can say to her is that we believe that the fundamentals of the workplace relations system are right because they are helping to deliver higher real wages, more jobs and the lowest level of strikes since 1913.