Page 3777 - Week 12 - Thursday, 22 November 2007
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If John Howard wins the election, Peter Costello will become Prime Minister, and without having to face the voters. Peter Costello has spent a lifetime agitating, advocating and legislating for a more extreme American style industrial relations system. If John Howard hands the keys of the Lodge to Peter Costello it is not believable that, after 21 years of extreme industrial relations crusading, Prime Minister Costello will not take Work Choices further—and John Howard will not be there to restrain him.
As you have heard, Work Choices has affected Australians badly, and of course studies have shown that women have been left with little choice when negotiating work contracts, with sometimes uncaring bosses. Family friendly Work Choices is not. So it comes to light that yet another round of Work Choices legislation was mooted by the Liberal government. Are we surprised? But of course they were never going to implement it; or were they? And of course we believe them: their history on being upfront and honest is just so transparent. We all know that if re-elected this dreadful government would seek to further reform the workforce.
I will call on Mr Howard and Mr Costello for the first time in their political life to be honest with the electorate. Tell us your plans that you have for workers in this country if you are re-elected. Let us know before this election.
MRS BURKE (Molonglo) (5.43): For one moment I thought the Chief Minister was really serious about this, but it is disappointing that he is not here this afternoon. Really and clearly, it shows that this is no more than a sop for the federal opposition at the moment. Mr Stanhope refers in the second paragraph of his motion to “the consequent benefit to the ACT”. He has not really thought about this, because I think Mr Rudd has already indicated his dissatisfaction with the states and territories when it comes to the running of things like our public hospitals. He is not just going to alleviate the pressure; he is going to take them over. So it will be interesting to see how Mr Stanhope copes with that. I think that, far from it being good news, Mr Rudd will be quite shocked about what exactly is going on around the states and territories, and not just in health. It will be interesting to see whether Mr Stanhope will have the same view if—and I doubt that it will happen—Mr Rudd gets in.
I will say something about what Mr Gentleman said. It was interesting that he was all over the place in terms of the relationship between Peter Costello and the Prime Minister. With respect to what has been the longest-serving partnership in political history between a Prime Minister and a Treasurer, for over 11 years, it is ridiculous for people to say they do not know what Peter Costello stands for. The policies that have been released by the federal government have absolutely and very clearly been worked out with the Treasurer—unlike the 100 or so policies that have only recently been presented for costing by the Rudd opposition. That is a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, isn’t it? They put out the policy without it being costed.
Mr Gentleman: Good policies, too.
MRS BURKE: No, it is an absolutely ridiculous way of doing it. How much good financial management does that show? Not much. I would be very concerned if I were a voter, and hopefully people will hear all about that in the next day or so.
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