, the main federal statute which regulated industrial relations in Australia
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Work Choices was passed by the Howard Government in 2005 and was designed to improve employment levels and national economic performance by dispensing with unfair dismissal laws for companies under a certain size, removing the "no disadvantage test" which had sought to ensure workers were not left disadvantaged by changes in legislation, thereby promoting individual efficiency and requiring workers submit their certified agreements directly to Workplace Authority rather than going through the Australian Industrial Relations Commission
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I need a mum or a dad of someone who’s been seriously injured or killed. That would be fantastic.
The history books show what happened in America. People on picket lines were murdered. Women and children were killed, and that is the road this Prime Minister wants to take us down. It is a disgrace.
[WorkChoices] put lives at risk, lives like the husband of—this lady...I want the Prime Minister to know something right now. We will hold the government to account for the human cost of these laws
[T]his is communist-style control
[W]hilst there has been an immense civil libertarian focus on this (counter-terrorism) bill, I actually think the industrial relations bill reduces civil rights more
[A] pact with the devil
[I]n this country in the '50s and '60s and there was a lot of sabotage that went on in the workplace, in a very subtle way...What concerns me is the sort of relationship that's now been established in the workplace is going to encourage that sabotage to take place again...like a screw being left out.As they used to say, never buy a motor car that was produced on a Monday or Friday
[S]calpels [will be] taken to the throats of members of the Liberal Party and The Nationals, particularly the female members … under the cover of darkness when everyone is asleep, and they will cut the throats of members of the Coalition from ear to ear
The Prime Minister has been waiting for this day for three decades, the day when he can finally impose his extreme ideology on Australian families. Well, Prime Minister, we are united in the war on terror but we are against you in your war on Australian workers.