Turnbull wants to revive AWAs: Gillard

Labor has used the spectre of a return to individual work contracts under the
coalition to deflect the opposition's attack on the $16 billion economic stimulus
school spending program.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard led a chorus of ministers on Monday in accusing
the opposition of wanting a return to the discredited Work Choices regime which
contributed to the Howard government's election loss in 2007.
The opposition's attempt to use question time to pepper Ms Gillard, who is minister
for education, employment and workplace relations, for a second week with a stream
of questions on school projects ended up being swamped.
Opposition frontbenchers Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey were both thrown out of the
house in an increasingly acrimonious atmosphere.
Speaker Harry Jenkins took exception to Mr Abbott wandering near the opposition
dispatch box in front of a camera filming Ms Gillard as she told how workers lost
pay and conditions under Work Choices' Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs).
The government used every chance it got to raise comments on the weekend by
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull that he would not rule in, or out, the possible
return of individual employment agreements as coalition policy.
It took no time for the government to associate individual agreements, or AWAs, with
Work Choices, putting the opposition on the spot.
This is despite the fact the Howard government introduced AWAs supported by a no
disadvantage test in 1996 and it was only under Work Choices, from March 2006, when
the safety net was removed.
Mr Turnbull, as did his predecessor Brendan Nelson, declared Work Choices dead early
in his leadership but his weekend comments handed the government a gift, especially
as the coalition has not yet replaced the old policy.
After question time Mr Turnbull posted a one-minute message on YouTube accusing
Labor of running a scare campaign on Work Choices in order to avoid answering
questions about its "wasteful" school stimulus program.
"Now, everybody knows that Work Choices is dead and the only people flogging that
dead horse is the Australian Labor Party as they try to distract attention from
their own incompetence," Mr Turnbull said.
To make matters worse for the leader, in an interview during the day opposition
workplace spokesman Michael Keenan refused to guarantee redundancy pay would be
protected under a coalition industrial policy.
"Look, I think people absolutely have a right to know the sorts of things we'll be
proposing," Mr Keenan said.
"But we will release our policy in the lead-up to the next election and there's no
point in me dribbling it when we're a year away from that at the moment."
And in another interview, Opposition Senate leader Nick Minchin said "it would be
very silly for Malcolm Turnbull to get nailed into ruling options in or out".
West Australian Liberal backbencher Wilson Tuckey told reporters he was never
comfortable with the coalition party room endorsing the death of Work Choices.
"The only problem with Work Choices was its name," Mr Tuckey said.
Ms Gillard singled out these and other comments as "further evidence" that the
coalition harboured a desire to return not only to AWAs but to Work Choices.
Mr Abbott later said that by abolishing AWAs Labor had thrown the baby out with the
bathwater but he said there would be no return to Work Choices.
"What we need is continued prosperity and continued flexibility," he told reporters.
"The point I make is that under the former government ... we had the greatest
prosperity and employment growth, and the fastest growth in wages, this country has
ever seen."
The distraction for Mr Turnbull comes in the wake of a new AC Nielsen opinion poll
published in Fairfax newspapers on Monday which shows his personal approval rating
is worse than Brendan Nelson's when he replaced him as leader a year ago this week.
The poll also show a majority of people (59 per cent) support the government's
billions of dollars in economic stimulus spending.