Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I know it's been a tough week for the opposition; they have lost perhaps the only voice of common sense from their frontbench. It's now a no-Joel Labor Party—a Joel-free zone over there on the other side. That means it's a job-free zone in the Labor Party as well. It's a job-free zone over there in the Labor Party. That was the only member of the Labor Party frontbench who was actually sticking up for people's jobs, sticking up for the dignity of work and sticking up for a future Australia that could create jobs in industries like mining, agriculture and stuff that is the bedrock of our nation. He's gone. He's gone because he couldn't cop sticking around with a bunch of crazy lefties who hate those industries and want to see those jobs go. So he is out of the tent.

Is it just a coincidence, then, that the week that Joel has left the coop is the same week that the Labor Party spend their question time questions on being against a program called JobMaker?

They've spent their whole week being against a program that is about making jobs, the very week that the only bloke who wanted to make jobs left their frontbench. I don't think it's a coincidence. I don't think it's a coincidence at all. I think there's causation here, not just correlation. There's causation here that the one bloke in the Labor Party who was up for defending jobs has gone and now the Labor Party are spending their tactical time opposing a program that is all about creating jobs for Australians. This program, the JobMaker program, is all about providing incentives for people to create new jobs, for businesses to put people on, and what do the Labor Party do? They oppose it. They want to oppose providing incentives for employers to create jobs because they're just not in favour of jobs. It's not their focus as a party—certainly not one without Joel Fitzgibbon there at the front.

I think sometimes the Labor Party do like to talk about jobs. They do sometimes come out and say: 'We want to support jobs. We want to support a hydrogen industry.' Sometimes they come out with things like, 'We're going to support hydrogen. There are going to be jobs in hydrogen.' Well, those jobs are fake jobs. There is no large-scale hydrogen industry across the world and not likely to be one for decades. But Labor get behind these industries and try to con workers in the mining sector and workers in power stations by saying, 'We'll be sacking you, but, don't worry, there'll be these other jobs'—these fake jobs in industries like the imaginary massive hydrogen export industry that we'll never get to in any reasonable time frame.

So the Labor Party are against the JobMaker program but all for a 'JobFaker' program. That's their policy. The policy of those over there is for a 'JobFaker' program, because they're all about supporting fake industries, fake jobs, to try to con hardworking Australians out of their livelihoods. We won't do that here; we won't cop that here. We'll be defending and fighting for those jobs through programs like the JobMaker initiative. We'll be making sure that we fight for the right of Australians to work—to have a job and have a livelihood.

On the specific issue that Senator Ciccone raised, the fact that the unfair dismissal laws do not have the same protections for those who are casual for less than 12 months—we haven't changed the unfair dismissal laws while we've been in government. They're the same provisions as were there when those opposite were in government. The last major change to industrial relations legislation was under the Labor government. They set up those laws. They are what they are right now because they were ticked off by the Labor Party. You cannot be just wantonly dismissed from your job, but, yes, there are extra protections under the unfair dismissal laws for those who are in more permanent work. Those are the laws that were put there by the Labor Party.

I think that maybe, eventually, the Labor Party will wake up to themselves. Hopefully, for the good of our country and the future of our nation, there will be a dropping of the rhetoric on the 'JobFaker' program. You can see Joel setting himself up here. Maybe he's just the stalking horse, but there's a drumbeat here now. Every day, Joel's doing a different thing. Today he wants to sack—