The Minister for Employment & Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard will today (1:20pm) introduce the Rudd Labor Government’s substantive workplace relations legislation, the Fair Work Bill, into the Australian Parliament.
The Fair Work Bill delivers the Government’s policy, Forward with Fairness, released prior to the last election.
The Rudd Government is getting rid of the Liberal Party’s extreme Work Choices laws, the laws firmly rejected by Australians at the last election.
The Fair Work Bill completely replaces the Workplace Relations Act, including the former Liberal government’s extreme and complex Work Choices amendments.
The Fair Work Bill is simpler and around half the size of the current Workplace Relations Act.
The Government's new workplace relations system will provide a strong safety net that workers can rely on, in good and in uncertain economic times. The Government's new fair and balanced workplace relations system has enterprise bargaining at its heart to drive productivity.
No one side of the debate is going to get everything it wanted because our new workplace relations laws are fair and balanced.
Our laws bring the workplace pendulum back to the middle, where it belongs and where Australians want it to be.
In complete contrast to the former Liberal government, the Rudd Government has engaged in an unprecedented level of consultation in drafting this legislation.
The Leader of the Opposition has refused say whether he remains committed to AWAs, by any name.
Yesterday, Mr Turnbull failed to answer the question three times, of whether he still believes in individual statutory agreements that undercut working conditions.
Mr Turnbull doesn’t need to see the Legislation to be able to answer that question.
In these troubled economic times, all Australians will benefit from certainty and from fair workplace relations laws.