The House of Representatives today passed amendments to the Fair Work Act which enable state public sector employees in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania who lose their job to retain the benefit of their existing terms and conditions of employment and to have their hard-earned entitlements protected, where a transfer of business occurs from a state public sector employer to a private sector employer in the Fair Work system.

 This is further evidence that what Liberal Governments do with public sector cuts at the state level is what we would similarly see them do at the national level.

 Today’s vote against protecting outsourced public sector workers comes less than three days after the Liberals voted against giving stronger protections to workers in the event their employer is liquidated or bankrupted, by opposing the Fair Entitlements Guarantee Bill.

 The Fair Entitlements Guarantee Bill delivers on the Government’s 2010 election commitment to provide greater certainty for Australian workers if their employer enters liquidation or bankruptcy and cannot pay them the employment entitlements they are owed.

 Not only did Tony Abbott’s Opposition vote against that legislation on Tuesday, they also proposed an amendment to reduce entitlements for long serving employees.

 Tony Abbott wrote this week that the Liberal’s policies of the recent past are the best guide to the Liberal’s policies of the future.

 With those words, and their voting record of the last 48 hours, the Liberals’ policy on workplace relations has been let out of witness protection.  

 The Liberals’ notorious, anti-worker bias has already come to the surface in the policies of State Liberal Premiers.

 Tony Abbott and the Federal conservatives have this week confirmed they intend to inflict the same damage that John Howard’s draconian, anti-worker, productivity killing workplace relations laws wreaked across Australia.

 Mr Shorten’s Media Contact: Sam Casey 0421 697 660