Senator Eric Abetz

Julia Gillard’s showboating in the West in hardhats and vests with policy on the run won’t fix Labor’s industrial relations mess.

Clearly Ms Gillard’s industrial laws are not working as evidenced by today’s decision by Qantas engineers to initiate unjustifiable work bans over Easter designed to cause inconvenience to airline passengers, a similar action to that taken by unions in the lead up to last years Christmas holiday period.

While Julia Gillard tours outback Western Australia, complete with an entourage of media minders and spin doctors, working Australians continue to suffer because of Labor’s unfair industrial relations laws.

Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd have lost touch with the real needs of working Australians, obsessed with poll driven politics driven by spin rather than reality which is not surprising when, unlike the rest of us, you live in a thought bubble.

It’s hard to imagine how Australian workers must feel when they see the Deputy Prime Minister on television smiling and waving for yet another picture opportunity attempting to convince everyone that everything is just so much better under Labor’s hastily put together and ill-conceived industrial laws.  

We have all seen what happens when Labor rushes out policy in an attempt to feed the media spin-cycle without having given due consideration and thought to the process.

Labor’s failed Pink Batt program, the building rorts, mismanagement and waste surrounding its school halls program, the failure of Grocery Watch and Fuel Watch, a raft of broken promises particularly in the areas of health and education and billions of dollars in mounting debt will impact on generations of Australians to come.

Julia Gillard says workers need to abide by the rules as set out by the industrial umpire but the reality is that she’s put herself in charge.

Julia Gillard’s new industrial laws signal a return to the bad old days of the 70’s when militant unions, particularly those in the building and construction sector caused irreparable damage to the Australian economy.

This sort of extremist behaviour did not occur under the previous Coalition Government which established the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Julia Gillard now wants to replace the ABCC with a watered down version, presumably because Labor’s union backers don’t like the accountability the ABCC provides to the sector.

The Coalition is taking a measured and sensible approach to industrial relations which will ensure freedom and fairness and a fair go for all working Australians.