Guy Barnett (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Where is Senator Marshall? He has left the chamber; he does not want to listen to the facts. You can see that unemployment has gone down to 4.6 per cent, a 30-year record low. What has happened with wages? In the last 12 months we have seen a 1.5 per cent increase in real wages. Under the Howard government there has been a 19 per cent increase in real terms. That is not a cut in wages. That is not downward pressure on wages. That is the exact opposite.

Let us remember what happened in 13 years of Labor. You had a 1.8 per cent decrease in wages. You see, Labor has a plan, and the election will see this out. The Australian people will have a choice between the Labor Party and the coalition. Labor has a plan to rip up AWAs, which have in fact been a part of the Australian landscape since they started in 1997. We have had over a million signed since 1997. The penetration in industry is some eight per cent nationally. In my home state of Tasmania it is 13 per cent. AWAs play a very important part in the Australian economy in terms of providing jobs and higher wages. In fact, in Tasmania, on average people on an AWA are paid 48 per cent more than those on an award. That is a lot of money. You only have one party that is going to the election with a plan to cut wages for those people on an AWA.

We have had a lot of support from industry and community groups with respect to Work Choices. But, before I get onto that, I just want to say that the Labor Party’s second major policy proposal going into the next election is to go back to the old unfair dismissal laws. We tried over 44 times to pass legislation through the parliament to remove those laws, and we were finally successful. We removed them because they were unfair, specifically unfair on Australia’s small businesses. We have not heard very much from the other side with respect to the benefits of Work Choices for small business. There are 1.9 million of them in Australia, and they benefit as a result of the choice available to them and as a result of the flexibility. Those in small business and their employees—full time, casual and part time—benefit.

Small business is going to cop it in the neck under Labor because Labor want to bring back the unfair unfair dismissal laws. These were the laws that scared small business away from employing. In my view, this particular initiative under the Work Choices legislation has resulted in a stimulus for small business to employ more people. That is my strong view. On the unfair dismissal laws, the New South Wales Business Chamber says:

The biggest change has been in small and medium sized businesses ... who no longer fear employing people because of the abuses that used to occur by employees exploiting the unfair dismissal system.

Here you have it: the Labor Party are going to bring back the unfair unfair dismissal laws, and that is scary. There was a rally in Bass, in Launceston, instigated by the union movement. There was a rally in Braddon where the hardworking members Michael Ferguson and Mark Baker are standing up for this government and saying, ‘Thank you for the jobs that have been created in these electorates.’ I stand with them and say this: the union movement are putting $30 million into this campaign; the Labor Party, $20 million. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and the Labor Party is doing the bidding for the union movement, and that is a scary prospect indeed. (Time expired)