Page 2913 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007

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That Mrs Dunne be suspended from the service of the Assembly.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Mrs Dunne was therefore suspended at 12.10 pm for three sitting hours in accordance with standing order 204, and she accordingly withdrew from the chamber.

MR GENTLEMAN: I will continue. The only real concern that John Howard articulated was a great disquiet in the business community about the unfair dismissal laws that were in place and the concerns of his constituency about the government changing those laws should they win government for the fourth time. It has been well documented in the media over many years that IR reform was very high on Mr Howard’s wish list. He spoke often about how he believed that the system that used to exist for 100 years was the biggest stumbling block to growth for jobs and small business in this country.

When the results of the last election became known and Mr Howard realised that with total control of both houses of parliament he was able to push through his IR reform, unhindered by a hostile Senate, he jumped at the opportunity. So began the introduction of what has turned out to be the most drastic changes to the lives of ordinary working men, women and children that this country has ever seen. I will say again that this was irrespective of the fact that not one word of this legislation was mentioned in the Liberal campaign leading up to the 2004 election. There was never a mandate for this legislation.

WorkChoices was introduced in parliament in 2005. It was only then that the true impact of just how this legislation would change the face of working Australia became known. The committee was advised that unions and workers recoiled in disbelief at the destruction of the powers of what we had all considered the independent umpire, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. This body, which had overseen the laws governing working Australia for over 100 years, was effectively disbanded. The government’s push to take command of the states’ IR systems using the corporation powers as set out in Australia’s constitution was greeted with great alarm, as this allowed the proposed legislation to cover every worker the corporation powers affected. This change handed over the majority of IR control from all of the states to the commonwealth.

On 27 March 2006 the WorkChoices legislation was enacted in the federal parliament. Despite many protests from unions and the wider public that this level of intervention in the employer-employee relationship was a step too far, John Howard finally had his

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