Page 4842 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 14 December 2005
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR SMYTH: No. He is absolutely right. Those who said the GST would be a failure were wrong. Yet here we have yet another tirade, another Trojan horse: we cannot be proud of what we have done because there is not much to be proud of, so we will beat up the federal government.
They have got it wrong. There are 1.7 million new jobs and the lowest unemployment in almost 30 years. The fear was that workers’ wages would be attacked. In the 13 years from 1983 to 1996 under a Labor government, when the Chief Minister was a senior adviser and chief of staff, wages growth for workers was 1.2 per cent in real terms. That is a real achievement, Chief Minister! You should be proud of that. In the 13 years of Labor government wages growth was 1.2 per cent. In the last nine years real wages growth has been 14.9 per cent. This has occurred at a time when union membership has died and we have had the lowest levels of industrial dispute since records were first kept in 1913. Between 60,000 and 100,000 new jobs will be created by these reforms. That is on top of the 1.7 million new jobs that have already been created.
We want opportunity for this country. The indicators of wellbeing in this country include having a job and having a roof over your head, but the motion we are debating here today rails against the 1.7 million new jobs and the expectation of a further 100,000 jobs. Those opposite should be ashamed of themselves.
The last time we had a debate of this nature, I think I called Mr Gentleman a parrot. The next day he came back with a superb parrot poster and said, “Look, aren’t I superb?” The superb parrot has been plucked and is now Chicken Little. How often have we heard from Mr Gentleman, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling.” The sky is not falling. The creation of 1.7 million jobs in the last 10 years means that the sky cannot fall because this government has got it right. These reforms are necessary to put us in a position to remain competitive with the rest of the world.
Paragraph (2) of the motion states:
calls on the Federal Government to admit the harmonious workplace relationship developed between employees, unions and employers have resulted in a productive economy, and retain workplace laws in their current form.
It is the federal government’s reforms from 1996 and since that have lead to harmonious workplace relationships. We know this because we have the lowest levels of industrial disputes since records were first kept in 1913. You are right, Mr Gentleman: the federal government’s workplace reforms from 1996 and the decline in union membership have led to these harmonious relationships. Well done, Mr Gentleman. It is good of you to acknowledge at last that the Howard government has done well.
The motion says that “harmonious workplace relationships have developed between employees, unions and employers and have resulted in a more productive economy”. Exactly. That is how we paid off Mr Stanhope’s share of the Beazley $100 billion black hole. Mr Stanhope, as a chief of staff and an adviser, must have contributed too, because he was in favour of all the Labor Party policies between 1983 and 1996. I did not hear any objections. I did not hear him in civil libertarian mode say, “No, that’s wrong.” I did not hear the Chief Minister say, “Don’t put Mabo into an early grave. Stop putting those
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .