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

I can guarantee the chamber that we have legislation before us which will ensure far more protections for workers in this country than were ever put in place by the previous government. Protections were ripped away by Mr Howard’s cabinet apparently on the basis—as the member for North Sydney says—of a lack of knowledge about what it was in fact doing. I do not know which is worse, a government that consciously removes conditions and wages from workers or a government that is not even aware it is doing so.

Frankly, that was the usual churlish contribution from Senator Abetz, a churlishness which was demonstrated by his withdrawal and comments in the debate which just preceded this. The way in which he chooses to behave at times really does belittle the chamber. It would have been appropriate, Senator Abetz, for you to have taken it on the chin and withdrawn when the President asked you to instead of making the sorts of comments that you did. But I will leave that to one side for now. If Senator Abetz chooses to behave like that, that is entirely a matter for him and his conscience.

This government will deliver on our election commitments. We will do what we told the Australian people we would do. That is the substance of the bill before the chamber and I can guarantee, Senator Abetz, that the legislation this government will bring forward—unlike the legislation your government brought forward—will, firstly, be consistent and deliver upon our election commitments and, secondly, will restore the protections that your government either consciously or unwittingly stripped away from Australian workers and their families.

I just want to remind the chamber—perhaps Senator Abetz does not realise this or perhaps he just got rolled in his party room—that the opposition is actually, as I understand it, not opposing this bill. They certainly did not oppose the second reading. Did any senators see the opposition oppose the second reading? I do not think so. After a number of weeks of toing and froing, with the Deputy Leader of the Opposition putting forward a range of different views about what was going to happen, the opposition has finally agreed not to oppose this bill.

But there are those on the other side who cling to Work Choices like someone drowning, cling to what they see as a life raft. I am afraid Senator Abetz is one of those, because he cannot bear to see this piece of legislation that he fought so hard for through this place now being ripped up by this government in accordance with our election policies. That is what is happening here. We on this side of the chamber are absolutely clear that we will deliver on our election commitments. The bill before the chamber does that. I hope that what we see now is opposition senators delivering on the commitment of their leadership group to not oppose this bill.