Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister update the House on how the government’s reforms in the area of employment are contributing to a stronger economy? Is the minister aware of any threats to this contribution?

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

I thank the member for Bonner for his question. I acknowledge that he is a man of great integrity. The member for Bonner is a fine representative of a beautiful seat. He knows that, by undertaking workplace reform, this government has been able to help to deliver more jobs and higher wages for working Australians. The unemployment rate today is 4.3, the lowest level in 33 years. More than 10½ million Australians are in jobs. Participation in the workforce is at an all-time high and real wages—meaning the wages that go into people’s pockets after inflation—have increased by more than 21 per cent since we came into government; whereas under 13 years of Labor real wages actually fell by 1.8 per cent.

This comes about not by accident but by real reform and introducing a more flexible workplace—for example, in 1996, by introducing AWAs. If you believe the rhetoric of the Labor Party, they have been around for only 18 months, but, in fact, they have been around since 1996. Of course, abolishing the unfair dismissal laws on small business means that small business now has the courage to employ people with no employment history.

I am asked about the threat to the success of the economy, the threat to our workplace relations system. The greatest threat is the Australian Labor Party. You only need to ask yourself one question, and I ask the Australian people to ask themselves this question: do you really believe that the Labor Party would have the courage to stand up to the union bosses, when 70 per cent of their front bench are former union officials? Do you really believe that the Labor Party would have the courage to stand up to the union bosses, when every member of the parliamentary Labor Party is a member of a trade union movement? Do you really believe that the Labor Party in government would have the courage to stand up to the union bosses, when they are spending tens of millions of dollars trying to get the Leader of the Opposition elected at the next election?

When you look at Labor’s front bench, starting from the left, you have the member for Watson, the member for Hotham and the member for Batman—former union officials. There is the member for Fraser, a former union official. There is a former lawyer to union officials in the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. If you go right down their front bench, what you find is a great history of total engagement with and absolute sycophancy to the trade union movement. And do you know what? You have to judge the Labor Party not on what they say, not on what the PR firm tells them to say, but on what they do. Greg Combet let the cat out of the bag last year—Greg Combet, the man who is coming in with Bill Shorten, Richard Miles and Dougie Cameron, the Scottish union official who is an expert on the interests of the Australian workers. Greg Combet, who is coming on to the front bench of the Labor Party, said, ‘I recall we used to run the country, and it would not be a bad thing if we did it again.’ Do you know what? He will have no problems with that under a Rudd Labor government.