Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I really cannot believe Senator Macdonald's gall in standing up here and saying that it is wrong for a government to educate the public about the dangers of climate change, about a policy that ensures that we have got a decent environment in this country and about a policy that ensures that future generations have the same rights as we have to enjoy a decent environment. And what does Senator Macdonald do? Senator Macdonald talks about hypocrisy. The biggest hypocrisy is when Senator Abetz, the leader of the coalition in this house, was in charge of the biggest use of public funds to promote a policy that was never taken to the electorate before it was brought in, and that policy was Work Choices—$150 million spent on a policy that was never mentioned before the election.

We know they say, 'Don't talk about Work Choices,' and why would they talk about it? They spent $150 million of public money to rip the shift loadings off ordinary workers, to take annual leave from ordinary workers, to take penalty rates off ordinary workers, to take away their public holidays and to give the boss absolute control over workers' lives when they are at work. They spent $150 million of public money trying to promote a policy that was about trying to devastate the working conditions of Australian workers, and they have the hide to come in here and argue that we should not advertise our legislation, which is about supporting the rights of workers in this country to continue to enjoy a decent environment. That is what they are in here doing. Audit Office reports said that the coalition did not even have signed contracts to deliver their advertising before they put it in place. They did not even do that. That is why the Audit Office put out recommendations about how you should deal with this—because of the incompetence and the skulduggery of the coalition spending $150 million of public money to attack the workers of this country. The workers will not forget that.

We know that the battle is on again in the Liberal Party to reintroduce Work Choices. The member for Moncrieff, Mr Ciobo, has had a battle and a brawl with Senator Abetz because Mr Ciobo wants to go out and promote Work Choices and Senator Abetz wants to hide the fact that Work Choices is coming back. That is the position of the coalition in this chamber. They want to hide the fact that Work Choices is coming back, and Work Choices will be back under an Abbott government.

The coalition were appealing to the worst elements in industry to say, 'We want to rip away workers' rights.' They were out saying, 'We want industry to tell us what the problem is.' So the usual suspects, the former Liberal Party minders who were heading up employer organisations, delivered. They said: 'We think we need more flexibility. We think you should change the industrial system in this country.' And what do they do? The hawks, the right-wing extremists in the coalition, are out there saying, 'We want Work Choices back,' and they have the hide to argue about us spending money to educate the public about good public policy. They spent $150 million on the worst public policy that has ever been introduced, a public policy that attacked families in this country. It attacked ordinary workers and left them at the mercy of some of the worst bosses in this country, and that is what they want to go back to. I suppose if they ever do come back to government and they do reintroduce Work Choices they will be spending more public money. They spent $150 million the last time they did it, and they will be looking to spend more public money to try to justify ripping the penalty rates, the shift loadings and the annual leave loadings off ordinary Australians, because that is what they are about. The opposition are not about a sophisticated approach on productivity. They would not know how to spell productivity. They were economic incompetents when they were in government. We had amongst the lowest productivity in the world. We were amongst the lowest in the OECD for research and development and innovation. They failed to deal with climate change. They were an absolute failure and their jelly-backed leader in the Treasury, who wanted to be the leader of the party—the jelly-backed Peter Costello—could not even stand up and say he wanted to be the leader. That is because he was too scared to actually deal with the economy in a really effective way. He was a failure as a politician, he was a failure as a Treasurer, and these people are sitting across there trying to lecture us about economic credibility.

They had no credibility. History will prove that Peter Costello was one of the worst Treasurers in this country—a jelly-back, a weak man with no economic competence. He did not even have the guts to take John Howard on. He was going to be their leader. Their leader was going to be a jelly-back. Then they have the hide to come in here and say to the government, 'Tut tut, you are spending money on advertising to help the future of this nation.'

What did Peter Costello say about the $150 million waste of public money spent under his watch as he spruiked Work Choices? Absolutely nothing, because he was one of the extremists in the Liberal Party. He couldn't hang around. He didn't have the guts to hang around and challenge. He didn't have the guts to stay as the Leader of the Opposition. He did not have the capacity. And now they have Tony Abbott there who wants to rip away workers' wages and conditions. He wants to rip away the rights of workers on the job. That is what you are about and the public will not forget it. Work Choices is coming back. We all know it and we know who is going to bring it in. It is the coalition. Their hypocrisy just stinks.