Sarah Henderson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

SON () (): There are giants in politics, and one of those giants was former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke. If he were alive today he would be disgusted. He would be disgusted that this Labor government, led by the most extreme left-wing Prime Minister in living memory, is pushing through some of the most extreme IR laws, which will send our country backwards, cost thousands of jobs and put our small and medium-sized businesses at the mercy of unscrupulous unions. He would be disgusted that this nation is now run by the unions because that is exactly what is happening here. He would be disgusted that this Labor government was not putting the interests of Australians first.

In 1983 he forged the historic accord between Labor and the ACTU in collaboration with business. He kept the unions at bay, in stark contrast to this Labor government, which, despite the gravest of concerns being raised by every employer group in the country, is determined to serve their paymasters at any cost. If Labor's extreme changes, which force pattern bargaining onto a large part of the economy, were in the best interests of Australia, Anthony Albanese would not have kept this dirty, rotten plan—