Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is the thing: they don't want to hear from small business. If they had actually read the report into this bill, they would have seen that small business—HVAC small-business operators—said they want multi-employer bargaining, because they want productivity increased. They want there to be a better opportunity to build wages, to turn around and share the opportunity for productivity. That is the sort of answer that we want to build this country—wages go up, productivity goes up. These are opportunities that make a change for everybody. This will mean wages improve and productivity improves. But what have the opposition constantly been about? Look at Senator Birmingham. On Insiders, he said that we should have a decrease in wages, because he wants the same system to apply. That's what they're about. They want wages suppressed. Look at Angus Taylor yesterday on the ABC. He's declaring individual contracts as the best way to go. They want to go back to Work Choices. The difference is: they've allowed Work Choices to apply right now because they've done nothing—