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

Or horns. Thank you, Senator Murray, I am very glad you pointed that out. Can I just come back to a couple of questions. One point is that the department has reminded me, Senator Abetz and others in the chamber, that the department’s submission to the Senate committee did include economic analyses in relation to the issues that are raised. The second point I wanted to make to Senator Abetz in his attempt—and this is not a new game by the senator—to suggest that there was somehow some equivalence between collective agreements and Australian workplace agreements that were imposed by and put in place by his government, is that if he is concerned about wages and conditions such as penalty rates being traded off, as he appears to be suggesting, one wonders why he supported Work Choices and championed it in the first place. I would make the point therefore that he should support the bill because the bill introduces a no disadvantage test against the full award which would include conditions such as penalty rates. Senator Abetz, I apologise; I have forgotten what your third question was. There were two or three, I think.