Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I repeat the answer, Senator Abetz. What we will not have under this government is a situation such as existed under yours. For example, in May 2006, 100 per cent of the Australian workplace agreements examined by your Office of the Employment Advocate cut at least one protected award, 64 per cent cut annual leave loading, 63 per cent cut penalty rates, 52 per cent cut shift work loadings, 51 per cent cut overtime, 48 per cent cut monetary allowances, 46 per cent cut public holiday pay, 40 per cent cut rest breaks and so forth. What this government is doing is removing the capacity of those employers who seek to do so to remove those sorts of wages and conditions, a situation which was at the heart of the approach taken by your government.

ABETZ, Senator Eric, Tasmania106912.52 pmAbetz, Sen EricN26TasmaniaLPDeputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate00—We can and will debate the detail of the legislation, but I will give her a third go.

Senator Wong interjecting—

Keep going, Senator Abetz. Ask your question.

If the minister is offended by me calling her ‘her’, I withdraw that. I will give the minister a third go. They are very sensitive over there, and I think I know why. I would have thought it still quite parliamentary to refer to the minister in the third person, but, that all aside, I will give the minister a third go with the question: will any worker be worse off as a result of this legislation? Yes or no?

I repeat my answer. Senator Abetz, my recollection was that during the passage of the Work Choices legislation you championed that legislation very strongly. I wonder now, in light of the evidence to date, whether you will concede that a great many Australians, particularly those with little bargaining power, were worse off as a result of the legislative framework you put in place. We on this side of the chamber are committed to restoring fairness to the workplace. That is what this legislation does, and it assures that the sort of stripping of pay and conditions in Australian workplace agreements that you saw under the previous government’s legislation cannot continue.