Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of answers given by Senator Abetz on the issue of industrial relations. Despite what Senator Abetz would have us believe, today we have seen tens of thousands of people around the country gather to march against this arrogant government and its unfair industrial relations laws. Today Australians have vowed not only to fight for their rights at work but to vote for them. We saw more than 60,000 people in Melbourne at the MCG, whilst 40,000 took to the streets of Sydney and 25,000 in Brisbane. There were several thousand here in Canberra who marched through the streets to the forecourt of this great building, where we stand today, to demonstrate their opposition to these archaic and unfair laws.

According to the Prime Minister, this sort of show of opposition to his Work Choices laws could be deemed illegal. I have absolutely no doubt that many more workers would have been present at events around the country but for fear for their jobs. The government has tried to play down the turnouts at today’s National Day of Action, but the reality is the outrage over these laws is not going to disappear, as the Prime Minister, Mr Andrews and even Senator Abetz and others across the chamber would have us believe. No, it is only going to grow. Australian workers are not going to give up until this war is won.

Australian workers and their families know that there is a simple choice to be made at the next election: Mr Howard’s extreme industrial relations laws and wage-cutting AWAs or Kim Beazley’s pledge to rip up these unfair laws and build a modern, flexible system based on Australian values. The Howard government’s extreme workplace laws are no good for Australian families and they are no good for the Australian economy. The Prime Minister is fooling himself if he believes he can treat Aussie workers this way and they will sit down and take it. The proof really is in the pudding. If Mr Howard were really confident in his industrial relations ideology he would have told voters his plan before the last election. But he decided that it was not an important enough issue. Or perhaps he just did not believe that Australians had the right to know what the government they were electing was going to do: to systematically remove all their rights at work—their penalty rates, leave loading and the right to public holidays. You name it, the Howard government has hacked it away.

In contrast to this government, which wanders from arrogance to incompetence to downright deception, all Australians can be confident that they know exactly what they will get from Labor: fair workplaces, built on Australian values. I will repeat that for Senator Barnett’s benefit: they know what they will get from Labor, and that is fair workplaces, built on Australian values. The Prime Minister and his wannabe deputies crossed the line when they began ripping away the rights of Australians and the values on which this country is based and built.

Mr Howard will try to make a few little tweaks to these laws, a few cosmetic changes in the hope of fooling Australians that they are not quite as bad after all. But voters will not be fooled. Australian workers will not be fooled. Only yesterday we debated the arrogant government’s Independent Contractors Bill, which is their latest attack on workers. We know that they will use their numbers in this place to once again attack Australian workers. If we needed any more proof that the government are deadset on hurting those people who need our help the most, then we have it.

This is not a government that cares about Australians. This is not a government that cares about Australian values or cares for the basic principle that a fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. This is a government that stands only for big business and the high end of town. All Australians want is a fair go, and they know that in fighting these laws they are fighting to defend the Australian way of life. At the next election, they will send a message loud and clear to Mr Howard: they do not want your unfair laws and they do not want your government because, not only are their rights at work worth fighting for, they are worth voting for.

Question agreed to.