Tony Abbott is being dishonest with voters over plans to bring back WorkChoices. Liberal leader Tony Abbott is being dishonest with the Australian public over his plans to bring back WorkChoices, say unions.

 

Tony Abbott was forced to admit on ABC TV’s 7.30 Report last night he was being dishonest when he promised ‘no new taxes’ and then announced a $2.7 billion levy on business the next month.

Kerry O’Brien: How are we to know when we're hearing your true position and when you're fudging the truth?
 
TONY ABBOTT: … I think we know when we can put absolute weight on what's being said and when it's just the give and take of standard conversation.
“Now Tony Abbott is being dishonest about his plans to bring back WorkChoices,” said ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence.
 
“On the 7.30 Report last night Tony Abbott admitted that if elected he will make changes to industrial relations laws but tried to play them down.
 
“Yet in his Budget reply speech last week Mr Abbott committed the Liberal Party to bringing back key elements of WorkChoices.
 
“He promised to wind back unfair dismissal protection and reintroduce individual contracts.
 
“He has also promised to allow employers use individual contracts that undercut basic award conditions like minimum hours of work.
 
“Instead of being upfront about these changes Tony Abbott is trying to con the Australian public with jargon terms such as ‘individual flexibility agreements’ and ‘interim transitional employment agreements’.
 
“These terms are code for individual contracts and the removal of award conditions such as penalty and overtime rates.
 
We’ll seek to take the unfair dismissal monkey off the back of small businesses which are more like families than institutions. We’ll make Labor’s transitional employment agreements less transitional and Labor’s individual flexibility agreements more flexible. Abbott’s Budget Reply
 
“Abbott is trying to trick the public into thinking nothing much will change, when in fact it is clear he has always been a hardline supporter of WorkChoices and wants to bring it back,” said Mr Lawrence.