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

I have been aware of Senator Fielding’s longstanding interest in issues relating to Work Choices. Indeed, he has circulated to the media his second reading speech on a particular bill that he has introduced on a similar topic. Senator Fielding is on record as saying, ‘What workers want is security.’ He is dead right. Today, 263,700 more Australians have a job. That is what I call security. Senator Fielding said that workers want to feel secure in their jobs. Guess what? Of the 263,700 more jobs, 87 per cent are full time. That is what I call security. This at the same time as the Leader of the Opposition saying, ‘We wouldn’t really mind the casualisation of the labour force.’ We said that we wanted full-time jobs, and that is what we have delivered.

What else has Senator Fielding said? He said, ‘They want to know they can bring home a decent wage.’ They are. Wages are 19.8 per cent higher in real terms since the Howard government came into being and 1.5 per cent higher in real terms since the introduction of Work Choices. I have also noted a comment by Senator Fielding that Australian workers do not accept that working at 2 am is the same as working at 2 pm. I have had experience of doing both as a taxidriver and I fully agree with him. But I can tell the honourable senator that being unemployed at 2 am is just the same as being unemployed at 2 pm, because unemployment stays with you 24 hours a day and puts you and your family under severe financial pressure. Financial pressure is the one social tendency above all others that is indicated in family break-ups. When we have been able to reduce the unemployment rate right down to 4.6 per cent, a generational low, I think the people of Australia will make the judgement that we have delivered social justice in providing more jobs, more full-time jobs, at a higher rate and higher wages, all of which benefit not only the men and women of Australia but also their families. That is why the men and women and families of Australia know that the Howard government is delivering for them, albeit sometimes as a result of taking tough decisions which have met opposition all the way along the track. At the end of the day, the statistics speak for themselves. The workers of Australia are now able to enter flexible negotiations with their employers to determine rates of pay for particular hours and what days they may or may not have off. That is the real guarantee of job security for the future of our fellow Australians.