Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. Will the Acting Prime Minister explain the importance of certainty and stability in workplace relations for Australian families and Australian businesses, and are there any threats to certainty and stability?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Petrie for her question and I also thank her for her efforts in working with me on the government’s workplace relations legislation, which will be in this parliament shortly. I sincerely thank her for her efforts. The government when in opposition last year made a set of promises to the Australian people. We promised them, if elected, we would sweep Work Choices away. We promised them, if elected, we would implement our Forward with Fairness plans. They were detailed to the Australian community and the Australian community voted for them. Those plans will ensure that we have a system that working people in this country can rely on. Under Labor’s system, the days of the rip-offs of the Liberal Party and its industrial extremism will be over.

Our system will have at its heart a rock solid foundation, a modern safety net made up of 10 National Employment Standards and modern awards. No-one will be able to sweep that safety net away the way it was swept away under Work Choices. We will have a bargaining system that is fair. We will ensure that if the majority of employees want to bargain in their workplace then their employer will bargain with them. We will ensure that there is bargaining in good faith. Our new industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia, will be empowered to make good faith bargaining orders. Our new industrial umpire will be able to direct parties to meet, to disclose relevant information and to consider proposals and respond to them in bargaining. Our new laws will ensure good faith bargaining includes refraining from unfair or capricious conduct. If bargaining goes off the rails, the industrial umpire will be there to help. It will be able to convene conferences, conciliate and make recommendations on the application of one party. We will have special arrangements for low-paid workers. We believe low-paid workers should be assisted. That is something that the Liberal Party never believed in, because low-paid workers were at the centre of the rip-offs of Work Choices. Members of the opposition shake their heads, but the facts are against them. The facts show crystal clear that it was the industrially weak that bore the brunt of Work Choices, and those opposite defended it. Our industrial umpire will be able to deal with unfair dismissals. Our industrial umpire will be there to help ensure fairness in the system.

We want to provide certainty for Australian employees and Australian employers. We have worked hard and collaboratively with employers and employees during the course of this year. With a business advisory group, with a small business working party, with a workers advisory group and through the committee on industrial legislation, we worked through the details of this legislation. It will be in the parliament soon. The great unanswered question here is: what will the Liberal Party do when the legislation comes to the parliament? The Liberal Party is led by a man who voted for the extreme Work Choices laws 23 times, despite Australians around the country urging him not to do so. We are still awaiting an answer. I say to Australians again: do not ever listen to what the Leader of the Opposition says but watch what he does. We will know whether or not he is still entirely in the embrace of industrial relations extremism and wants to have Work Choices still hurting working families in this country before this parliament rises at the end of the year.