Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know you did not—you are not a Queensland senator, that is why you were not there. That is quite easy to understand. In concentrating on jobs, I really want to crunch this reality: in the state of Queensland we have a situation where the new Premier up there is sacking 14,000 public servants—and that is just the tip of the iceberg. They are going to eliminate them off the face of the earth. But when it comes to jobs for the Liberal National Party in Queensland they focus quite squarely on jobs for the boys, like Michael Caltabiano, who is now facing possible criminal charges. They focused on him and made sure he had a job when they were recently elected.

What happened after that? Former DG Neil Scales was terminated as a result of one of those 14,000 jobs that the state government was going through. He was on $343,000 then, and was paid that as a result of his termination, only to be re-hired on $428,000. How do you figure that? It is just another example of the waste of money and of how they treat jobs in Queensland.

Then there is the arts minister's son, Ben Gommers, who was hired to work in the transport department, being investigated by the Crime and Misconduct Commission. Where is Minister for Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts Ros Bates when all this is going on? First it was annual leave, now it is sick leave—she is roaming around in shopping centres with an injured shoulder but nowhere to be seen when it comes to having to answer questions in the Queensland parliament about these atrocities. This is what the LNP government is about in Queensland—jobs for the boys, not jobs for our struggling workers who need them the most.

Focusing once again on the BER outcomes and concentrating on each of those areas: in the seat of Longman there was $94,344,435 spent on 122 projects; in the seat of Brisbane $81,959,700 was spent on 132 projects; in the seat of Forde $102 million was spent on 127 projects; in the seat of Wright $100 million was spent on 245 projects; and in the seat of Dickson $71 million was spent on 113 projects. That is just an example of what those opposite describe as waste—money in education for our future generation that will only benefit them as a result of getting that great initiative and that spending to ensure that they are best situated for the global situation into the future.

One of the Labor Party's core election commitments in 2007, and the crux of my decision to run in this place, was to abolish the Howard government's Work Choices and the unfair, entitlement-robbing industrial relations laws. We did this decisively, to make sure workers were treated fairly, had confidence and security in their workplaces and were not unfairly dismissed. We introduced unfair dismissal laws and we introduced an independent workplace relations tribunal, Fair Work Australia.

One thing we lead paramount on is fairness in the workplace and fairness overall. That is one thing the Labor Party stands for. That is where the divide is between us and those opposite. We believe in fairness while those opposite believe only in the example I gave of Queensland—creating jobs for the boys. This is where we differ—we have created 800,000 jobs since we were elected while those opposite are up there in Queensland with the LNP terminating 14,000 of them. It is the tip of the iceberg.

This government supports Australians at different stages of their lives. One prime example is that, not long ago, the Paid Parental Leave scheme was introduced by this Labor government. It is a proud and genuine scheme that will make sure that workers who are in times of need and giving birth to children have the opportunity to be protected and to have reasonable payment of wages paid to them at a time when they generally need it the most. Shortly, through the partner scheme, we will also be enabling partners to stay at home with their partner and new children for at least two weeks.

I do not have the opportunity to go through all our fantastic initiatives, but this is an example of what we have provided over our term in government and, certainly, since our last election in 2010, and we will continue the rollout of these fantastic initiatives.