Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday the parliament heard a lot from the opposition about the government’s new workplace relations agenda. Most of it was inaccurate, anti-worker, anti-union and, quite frankly, fearmongering. Opposition members were in the House criticising the changes but told us that they would support the bill in the Senate, and we look forward to that support in the Senate. Liberal backbencher Mr Roberts, the member for Fadden, said that the government’s legislation breaks a list of promises, particularly about the union’s right of entry to a workplace. As I have outlined, that is completely inaccurate and misses the point. This is about ensuring that Work Choices is dead. It is about ensuring that this government’s agenda on restoring the balance to the industrial relations system is brought forward. The reforms in Forward with Fairness, presented at the last election, were decisively endorsed by the electorate, and the opposition should listen to what the electorate has said. The government’s promise in Forward with Fairness—  (Time expired)