House debates Questions without Notice

Employment

Tuesday, 10 March 2009 House of Representatives

Malcolm Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition

3:20 pm

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister and I refer to the question that his deputy was unable to answer a few moments ago. Will the Prime Minister guarantee that his Fair Work Bill will not cost one job?

Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

The Leader of the Opposition knows full well from the unemployment forecasts which are contained in the economic outlook that we are projecting unemployment to rise to seven per cent in the next year or so. Those figures are there for all to see. The honourable member will know therefore that we are in the midst of the jobs consequence flowing from the global economic recession—

Unidentified interjection - Hansard doesn't record who said this

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins

Harry Jenkins Speaker

Order! The question has been asked.

Kevin Rudd

Kevin Rudd Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister

And what people want to know is whether they have redundancy protection through it as opposed to redundancy arrangements stripped away from it, as each of those members opposite secured when they voted for the passage of Work Choices.