Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator Arbib. Can the minister outline how Australian workers and their families would be impacted by a return to a Work Choices style industrial relations system? I ask, in particular: how could Australian workers be exposed to the loss of unfair dismissal protections? Is the minister aware of reports outlining alternative plans, to scrap the unfair dismissal protections currently enjoyed by Australian workers under the Fair Work Act?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Marshall, for the question. It is pretty clear that we have seen over the last fortnight the Liberal Party’s real face starting to emerge, the real face in terms of industrial relations. It is starting to emerge. What they say in private is starting to come out, and it is not a surprise. They are walking both sides of the street. What they are saying to business is different to what they are saying to workers and certainly what they are saying to the media. I noticed comments by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Abbott, when he was at the Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry luncheon in Brisbane a week ago. When he was talking about unfair dismissals, he said:

You know, at four elections running we had a mandate to take the unfair dismissal monkey off the back of small business and we will once more seek that mandate.

Finally the truth is coming out. We then saw an absolute panic within the Liberal ranks and in the frontbench of Mr Abbott. Senator Brandis was straight out onto Sky Agenda to defend him. Senator Brandis said:

There will be no element of the Work Choices legislation in any set of policies that the Liberal Party puts to the Australian people this year.

Well, he has already contradicted his leader. Then Mr Hockey was out on Meet the Press. What did he say? He said:

We made some mistakes. WorkChoices, in the end, was a mistake. As it was in the beginning a mistake, when we took away the no-disadvantage test. WorkChoices is dead.

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Abetz interjecting—

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We would like to believe you, Senator Abetz, but we know that that is not the case. The Liberal Party was straight back out there. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Ms Bishop, started talking about penalty rates. What did she say? She said, ‘Bringing back inflexible working conditions such as the penalty rates regime is costing’— (Time expired)

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister outline the current protections and safety net conditions under the government’s new Fair Work system? In particular, what is the government’s position in relation to an appropriate safety net for workers?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government’s new Fair Work system is a simpler, fairer and more balanced system for the 21st century. It provides 10 minimum standards through the National Employment Standards. Coming back to comments made by the coalition in the last fortnight, Senator Abetz said in the last fortnight that Work Choices is dead. But I picked up in one of the local Tasmanian papers comments by Greg Barns, former Liberal staffer. What did he say about Senator Abetz? He said, ‘And the danger of hard right types like Senator Abetz is that they often disguise their true political intentions with comforting, vague words during an election campaign that are then used to their advantage to implement policy.’ He then referred to a speech that Senator Abetz gave in 1992 to the HR Nicholls Society, where he comforted unions that there would no changes. What did Senator Abetz say? He used political speak that left open the door in the event that a need to change things arose. (Time expired)

Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask an additional supplementary question. Can the minister update the Senate on any alternative position in relation to an appropriate safety net for workers?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Howard government all but stopped awards. They stripped Australian workers of their workplace safety net. We know that; that is a fact. The extreme Work Choices system stripped workers of wages and conditions. It left millions of workers without protection from unfair dismissal. And now we see them at it again. The Leader of the Opposition is on record now as saying that he will remove unfair dismissal protection from approximately two million Australian workers. He will strip their penalty rates—unfinished business of the Liberal Party indeed. In his book, Battlelines, Mr Abbott talks about unfinished business, and now we know what the unfinished business is: it is bringing back Work Choices.

I will go back to what Senator Abetz said in that speech, because it was a beauty! Apparently, Senator Abetz regaled his audience with the tale of how the state Liberals in that year during their election campaign had answered a question from the unions on industrial relations reform by saying that it had no intention of making changes and that any need for change that emerged would be subject to full consultation. We know how that worked out. (Time expired)

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.