Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to comments made by his Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government this morning on the Steve Price Morning Show. I quote:

Steve Price: The restaurant industry today is predicting 1,000 restaurants will close and two and a half thousand jobs will disappear if this industrial relations change becomes law.

Albanese: They were all going to disappear over various other issues from time to time.

Does the Prime Minister agree with his own minister that 1,000 restaurants are due to close and thousands of jobs are to disappear no matter what the government does, or is this just the risk of a Rudd recession?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for North Sydney asked a question about the impact on the retail sector, and restaurants in particular. Can I simply say to the member for North Sydney: his entire political attack and his leader’s attack on this government has focused expressly on consumption payments which we have made as a government to support retail, including the restaurant sector, to boost the 1½ million Australians employed within that sector. We have a course of action; you have a plan of opposition.

Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Social Inclusion. How does the Fair Work Bill provide greater job security for Australian workers and are there any obstacles to the government implementing these protections?

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

I thank the member for Flynn for his question. I know that he is deeply interested in ensuring that there is fairness in Australian workplaces and that there is an end to Work Choices. In the lead-up to the 2007 election, the Labor Party campaigned that if elected we would get rid of Work Choices and replace it with our Forward with Fairness plan, published in documents like this—this is the policy implementation plan—from August 2007. In these policies we promised two things very specifically. We said that every Australian worker would be able to rely on National Employment Standards and that those National Employment Standards would deal with redundancy—that is, that people would be able to get redundancy pay and no-one would be able to have that stripped away from them. Of course, one of the principal vices of Work Choices is that it meant that people could have their redundancy pay stripped away with not one cent of compensation. Very specifically in this document we said that we would institute an ability for good workers, people who have proved themselves, to make an unfair dismissal claim, and we said in our policy, very specifically in this document, that we would make special arrangements for businesses with fewer than 15 employees. Two promises, one on redundancy and one on unfair dismissal, are contained in the Fair Work Bill. This is a government that believes in making a promise and then delivering it.

I am asked about any obstacles to the delivery of these promises. Mr Speaker, can I say that I thought last December that perhaps the Liberal Party had seen the light and would enable the government to deliver these promises. In particular, I remember reading the front page of my Australian newspaper on 13 December last year. I read these words:

… Labor took a proposal to change the unfair dismissal laws to the election and won … So we must respect that.

Government Member:

Who said that?

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

Who did say that? I repeat:

… Labor took a proposal to change the unfair dismissal laws to the election and won … So we must respect that.

The Leader of the Opposition said that, which just means it is even more amazing that the Liberal Party yesterday went to war in its party room on whether or not to continue to support Work Choices. And the Leader of the Opposition emerged from that war in the party room, the war of which there is a blow-by-blow description in today’s newspapers, at war with himself, because, despite saying those words, of course now it is a claim of the Liberal Party that we should change our unfair dismissal laws in the Fair Work Bill to make it easier for workers to be sacked.

They emerged from the war in the Liberal party room talking about amendments to the Fair Work Bill, but they studiously avoided answering the question: if their amendments are not accepted, what happens next? Do they vote for the Fair Work Bill or do they vote to keep Work Choices? Well, fortunately, there is one honest man in the Liberal Party. I know it is a controversial call and I apologise to my colleagues if I have got it wrong, but the one honest man in the Liberal Party is a senator for South Australia, Cory Bernardi—he writes a good newsletter, as I understand it. Today the one honest man in the Liberal Party, Cory Bernardi, said this: ‘If we can’t fix the legislation we are right to vote against it.’

Well, when the Liberal Party emerged from its party room yesterday at war with itself and with no clear position about what it was going to do next, how is it that Senator Bernardi today can be so certain of what the Liberal strategy is? Maybe, just maybe, the Liberal strategy was worked out at La Rustica last night when the shadow Treasurer, the salesman for Work Choices, had dinner with the member for Higgins, the architect of Work Choices. Maybe the Work Choices strategy of the Liberal Party was worked out then, or just maybe they were having dinner to discuss their support for the Leader of the Opposition.

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. As the minister refused to answer the question I asked her yesterday, I ask her again: will the minister guarantee that no jobs will be lost under the Fair Work Bill, or will she come clean with what the job consequences will be of her industrial changes, particularly for workers in the restaurant and catering sector?

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

I thank the shadow minister for his question. I would ask him at some point to perhaps tell the House: when was it that the Liberal Party in government released economic modelling of Work Choices? When did that happen?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order with respect to the process of the House, the opposition asks questions and the government answers them. It has become a habit for the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister to ask us questions. If they want to relinquish government, we will facilitate that.

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Sturt will resume his seat. There is no point of order.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker; and I am awaiting the next edition of Senator Bernardi’s newsletter. But on another point, when was it that the Liberal Party in government released economic modelling of Work Choices? Oh, that is right; it did not! It did not release economic modelling of Work Choices. Now it is time that the shadow minister just came clean and admitted that all of this twisting and turning is to find an excuse to stay in the embrace of Work Choices and to vote for a continuation—

Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I refer you again to sections 88, 89 and 90 of the standing orders. Disorder will occur in this House when ministers will not tell the public how many jobs they are going to lose and come up with all the rubbish of the last—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for O’Connor will resume his seat. There is no point of order. The question has been asked.

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

I cannot wait till the member for O’Connor gets his turn to be Leader of the Opposition. They are going to be good days! On the shadow minister’s question, can I also say to the shadow minister: if the shadow minister and his current leader and the member for Higgins and the member for O’Connor and whoever else seriously believe that Work Choices created jobs then they should have the political courage to come to the dispatch box and say that they still believe in it and they are voting for it.