Senator PARER (10.50 p.m.) —The purpose of the Industrial Relations Reform Bill allegedly is to introduce enterprise flexibility agreements so that we can have a more productive private sector, so that we can increase employment, so that we can make more of the goods that people wish to buy in Australia and so that we can export more. But the bill will have the opposite effect.

  Because of the stringent conditions relating to enterprise agreements and because of the compulsory involvement of trade unions in the decision making process in respect of enterprise agreements, there will be very few enterprise agreements at all, which will be to the disadvantage of the small business community. In discussions I have had with the small business community, it has made it very clear to me that the net effect will be a disincentive for people to be put on the payroll as permanent staff and an incentive for more casual employment. That is a very negative effect. It is the last thing in the world that our country needs when we already have something like 1.5 or 1.6 million real unemployed.

  Senator Bell and the Australian Democrats have a lot to answer for. Senator Bell made some remarks in the debate that he had consulted with the small business sector. The small business people who attempted to contact Senator Bell have denied that. They have said that Senator Bell would not speak with them and that, when they did get through to him, after he had received some 300 letters from the small business sector, they were told that the Democrats would not assist them because they did not vote for the Democrats. The reason could have been twofold. It could have been that the person contacting Senator Bell came from New South Wales. I would have thought that Senator Bell would be more interested in doing what was right for the country and the small business sector.

  Senator Bell interjecting—

Senator PARER —Senator Bell, by way of interjection, just said, `They wouldn't vote for you, anyway'.

Senator Bell —I said, `They wouldn't vote for anybody'.

Senator PARER —They would not vote for anybody. There are certain sectors in the small business sector which, because of their religious beliefs, which I respect, find themselves in that position. It does not mean that Senator Bell has to make a snide, throwaway remark about those people. It is about time that people with the sorts of consciences that those people displayed—not all of them—should be listened to by people on the government side and, more importantly, on the Democrats side who have let them down.

Senator Burns —Do they listen to other people? They are not good listeners, are they?

Senator PARER —Senator Burns says they are not good listeners. Fancy that coming from a left wing leader of the trade union movement, which is totally deaf to anything but some crazy ideology that has brought this country to its knees.

  Senator Chapman, in his response, paid tribute to those people who sat in the gallery throughout the whole debate on this bill. I would like to do the same. The important thing is that they can now make their own judgments based on what they have seen and heard. It is a pity that there are not more people in the community who take the trouble to follow parliamentary debates because we would have a much better educated population and a less apathetic population. If that occurred, the Labor Party would be out of power and would never return to power.