Work Choices has been buried: Gillard

Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has declared Work Choices "finally
buried" after the Senate passed Labor's Fair Work bill on Friday.
A relieved Ms Gillard told reporters that Labor had fulfilled its promise to get rid
of the Howard government's industrial relation (IR) laws almost three years after
they were introduced.
"Every step of the way we've had to fight against Liberal Party opposition. Even
today, in the last hour in the Senate, the Liberal Party was twisting and turning
and fighting to keep Work Choices," Ms Gillard said.
"Today, despite their opposition, we have buried Work Choices."
Ms Gillard thanked the Greens, independent senator Nick Xenophon and Family First
senator Steve Fielding for their constructive contributions to the debate.
"The work with the Australian Greens and senators Fielding and Xenophon shows just
what can be achieved when people of good will who are opposed to Work Choices work
together," Ms Gillard said.
The Fair Work bill was approved by the Senate after Labor struck a deal with two key
crossbench senators.
The deal centred on transitional arrangements relating to the definition of small
business.
Labor wanted a definition of fewer than 15 staff while independent senator Nick
Xenophon and Family First's Steve Fielding were seeking to increase that number to
20.
Ms Gillard said that for the hundreds of thousands of Australians who had campaigned
against Work Choices, it was now a day for celebration.
"We will now move to the era of fair work under Labor's Fair Work Bill," Ms Gillard
said.
There would be a transitional period of 18 months where the definition of a small
business for unfair dismissal purposes would be set at 15 full-time equivalent
staff.
"At the end of the transition period we will deliver in full the election promise we
took to the Australian people," Ms Gillard said.
Greens Leader Bob Brown described the passage of the Fair Work bill as a "great
result", saying it was what the Australian people had voted for.
Senator Brown said the Greens had helped to broker the deal which saw Family First
Senator Steve Fielding shift from wanting a definition of small business set at 20
employees to 15, allowing the bill to be passed.
"I also congratulate the deputy prime minister because we've found her a
straight-shooter," Senator Brown told reporters.
Senator Brown and the Greens workplace spokeswoman Senator Rachel Siewert both said
they had gained the right for parents of children with disabilities to request
flexible working hours.
But Senator Brown said Senator Fielding's decision to give ground on Fair Work had
not redeemed, in the Greens' eyes, his actions in blocking the alcopops bill.
"He's got one out of two, Senator Xenophon's got one out of two and the Greens have
got two out of two," he said.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says the monthly unemployment figures will be the
litmus test of how many jobs the government's new industrial laws destroy.
"The three criteria on which this law will be judged is jobs, jobs, jobs," Mr
Turnbull told reporters.
"Every month there will be a report card, the jobs figures, and it will be from that
report card that we and all Australians will know the real impact of this law on
jobs."
Mr Turnbull said the coalition had helped make the laws "less bad" so they would
destroy fewer jobs.
"The test will be how many jobs it destroys," he said.
Mr Turnbull insisted there would be ways to distinguish which job losses were a
result of the global recession and which were related to the new workplace laws.
This could be done by talking to businesses and finding out why they had sacked
workers, he said.
Mr Turnbull maintained Work Choices was dead - and the opposition had helped kill it
off.