Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts. How has the Fair Work Act restored the rights of Australian workers?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order! The member for Lyons will resume his seat and I will get him to start again. The member for Sturt will withdraw.

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

Mr Speaker, if it assists the House, I withdraw.

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

The member has withdrawn. With the withdrawal goes an apology. It is taken as an apology.

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for the Arts. How has the Fair Work Act restored the rights of Australian workers? How were the rights of workers affected by individual statutory contracts before Fair Work, and what is the future of statutory individual contracts in Australia?

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

I rise on a point of order. On the basis of the ruling you gave last Wednesday in this place, I put it to you that that question is simply an invitation to the minister to attack the opposition. You have ruled questions that I have put in the last week out of order and I put it to you that the question that has been put to the member for Hotham is not within his responsibilities and invites an argument and debate in the answer.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order, surely an admission of guilt is no defence.

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

The chief government whip is warned. I do not wish to add addenda to questions but I take it that the question on the issue of whether it is within the minister's responsibilities is that he is the minister acting for the minister in the other place with those responsibilities.

On the other matter, which was the first point that the Manager of Opposition Business has put to me, the question was in order. I simply indicate to the minister that he should decline the invitation.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am asked this question by the member for Lyons, and I thank him for the question because he, like all of those on this side of the House, came into this parliament determined to defeat Work Choices. And we did that when we became a government and introduced Fair Work Australia. It was the Prime Minister today—the then Deputy Prime Minister—who led that charge and introduced Fair Work Australia. What that has done is to restore fairness to the workplace.

It has restored fairness because it has restored the right to collective bargaining—a universally recognised right that was denied under Work Choices. It has also restored the requirement to bargain in good faith. That is also something that was denied under Work Choices.

I am asked, also, what rights are affected when individual contracts were brought in. I remind the House of two pertinent examples. One was the Corowa meatworks, where they sacked all of their workforce and put a new workforce on individual contracts and did not pay any redundancy to the sacked workers. Then there was Spotlight, where the workers were taken off enterprise bargains, put onto individual contracts and had all of the penalty rates stripped away. They were two examples that happened under their watch that could never have happened under previous legalisation.

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

Order, the member will not refer to the opposition.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am asked, generally, how this has affected what individual contracts have done. When individual contracts were brought in in this country it had the effect of two-thirds of individual contracts cutting annual leave loading and penalty rates. One half of them cut shift work, overtime, rest breaks and holiday pay. One third of them cut public holidays and one fifth of them had provisions in them for no pay increase for up to five years. That is what individual contracts did.

I also make the point that apart from restoring fairness and dignity to the workplace when we introduced Fair Work Australia, it has also had significant benefits for the Australian economy. We have had the record job growth which I spoke about yesterday. No four-year period in the history of this country has seen 750,000 jobs created. It has also been great for the economy because it has lowered industrial disputes.

So why would anyone want to return to individual contracts? I am asked by the member: what is the future of individual contracts in this country? I say to you, under us there is absolutely no future, because we are determined to keep the system that we have in place.

But the same cannot be said for the other side. We heard yesterday the former minister for Industrial Relations, Peter Reith, stirring on the other side of politics to go back to Work Choices. But fortunately we had a statement from the Leader of the Opposition saying, 'We don't support individual contracts.'

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

I rise on a point of order. It is transparently obvious that the minister is not listening to the admonition that you made at the beginning of his answer. This will be the sixth minister who has strayed from the rulings that you have given, and I ask you to bring him back to the question, or he should sit down.

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

In the first 3½ minutes I think that members would have to admit that, in a fairly robust and feisty contest of ideas, the minister has shown what is still possible under a tightening of the interpretations of the standing orders. Before he gets too swollen a head, I remind him not to stray too much.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am trying not to stray, Mr Speaker, but I am asked what the future of statutory individual contracts are. Whilst the Leader of the Opposition has ruled them out—

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

Order, you are in conclusion—

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, Mr Speaker, that is not what the member for Mayo said. The member for Mayo, when he was asked today, said they wanted to return to them. There is no future for individual contracts under us. The only thing the other side cannot say no to—

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

The minister has lost the call.

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

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.