Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

I did hear the question, and I thank Senator Johnston for his loud, booming voice, which did allow me to hear the question above the din from those opposite. I am aware of a number of comments in support of a modern industrial relations system in this country. Indeed, in recent times Mr Bracks, the Victorian Premier—and when I say ‘in recent times’ I mean a decade ago—said that the Labor opposition ‘supports in principle the concept of a single national system of industrial relations’. Prior to that we had the New South Wales Premier, Bob Carr, who famously said:

In a nation of 17 million people—

as we were at that time—

struggling to modernise its economy, seven separate systems of industrial regulation are an absurd luxury.

Or how about the opposition IR spokesman, the member for Perth, who said last year:

It is possible to consider ... a single or a unitary system. It’s not a novel policy idea, and you can contemplate a whole range of efficiencies ...

What these three quotes show is that the Australian Labor Party know what needs to be done to modernise our industrial relations system. I will give them another quote to assist them. It is this—and I would ask honourable senators to listen to it, because it is very important:

It is going to be necessary to strike an alternative industrial relations policy [that has] regard to the open-trading nature of the economy ...

Those opposite can squirm as much as they like in listening to it, because they know it was said by their real leader—and by their real leader I am not referring to Mr Beazley but to Mr Greg Combet, the Secretary of the ACTU. So we have the prospect of the ACTU itself recognising that you cannot go back, you have to move forward. But what is Mr Beazley’s policy in relation to the reforms we have just introduced? It is a ripper. He is going to rip up our policy and go back to that which existed prior to 1996, when his own ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, has finally been mugged by reality and now acknowledges the need for reform in the open economy in which we now operate.

While the Labor states are trying to mount a constitutional challenge against this unitary system, we have the Victorian Premier supporting the unitary system; the former New South Wales Premier, Bob Carr, supporting the unitary system; the member for Perth, Mr Smith, supporting the situation; and even the ACTU secretary, Mr Greg Combet, supporting the notion of the need for modernisation. If I cannot convince them, I trust that the Rt Hon. Tony Blair can convince them, because when he addressed the Trade Union Congress after becoming Prime Minister he said this about the Thatcher reforms:

We are not going back ... We will keep the flexibility of the current labour market, and it may make some shiver, but, in the end, it is warmer in the real world.

I encourage those on the other side to join us and Mr Blair in the real world. (Time expired)