Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Marshall, for the question. It is pretty clear that we have seen over the last fortnight the Liberal Party’s real face starting to emerge, the real face in terms of industrial relations. It is starting to emerge. What they say in private is starting to come out, and it is not a surprise. They are walking both sides of the street. What they are saying to business is different to what they are saying to workers and certainly what they are saying to the media. I noticed comments by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Abbott, when he was at the Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry luncheon in Brisbane a week ago. When he was talking about unfair dismissals, he said:

You know, at four elections running we had a mandate to take the unfair dismissal monkey off the back of small business and we will once more seek that mandate.

Finally the truth is coming out. We then saw an absolute panic within the Liberal ranks and in the frontbench of Mr Abbott. Senator Brandis was straight out onto Sky Agenda to defend him. Senator Brandis said:

There will be no element of the Work Choices legislation in any set of policies that the Liberal Party puts to the Australian people this year.

Well, he has already contradicted his leader. Then Mr Hockey was out on Meet the Press. What did he say? He said:

We made some mistakes. WorkChoices, in the end, was a mistake. As it was in the beginning a mistake, when we took away the no-disadvantage test. WorkChoices is dead.