Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Of course we expect the government to come out swinging, bringing the ‘bogeyman’ of the union movement out yet again. How scary is that! Then Senator Troeth goes on to quote Michael Chaney as an independent commentator on how ‘effective’ Work Choices has been—a successful businessman. Do you know what I am scared of? I am scared of the big business that is running this country. I am not scared of the union movement, which is looking after workers and trying to find a genuine balance between work life and family life—which is being distinctly and definitely eroded by this legislation.

Let us look at a few of the details. Let us look at the gender pay gap, which has got worse under AWAs. Let us look at the penalty rates that have been taken away under AWAs. Work Choices was supposed to be about productivity, but productivity has dropped by 0.7 per cent. I know that Senator Abetz would not like me to quote from David Peetz, but the fact is that he has done some research that looks at the limited data that is available from AWAs—