Mr RICHARD EVANS —My question is addressed to the Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business. Minister, figures released last week reveal that Australia currently enjoys its lowest level of working days lost per 1,000 employees since before the First World War. Would you advise the House how this has happened and what would be the result if alternative industrial relations policies were to be introduced?

Mr REITH (Workplace Relations and Small Business) —The industrial disputes figures that came out last week show the best result since before World War I. What an interesting contrast that makes, because look at what the ACTU was saying before the last election. The Canberra Times headline was `Union Chief Predicts IR War' and in the Age it was `Unions Prepare for IR War'. Not to be outdone, the member for Hotham got a run. He had `Crean Backs Wage War Threat' in the Australian a couple of days later.

So before the last election we were told that, if the coalition was elected, basically it would be mayhem, there would be industrial chaos, the country would be paralysed by economic warfare orchestrated by the trade union movement. What has happened? Have we had industrial war, as predicted by the Labor Party? No. What has happened is that we have had an outbreak of industrial peace unparalleled since records were first kept. Not only have we had the best numbers per 1,000 employees since before World War I; we have also had the actual lowest number of disputes since back to 1940, since before the Second World War.

What a fantastic record that is. Of course, Labor's record makes an interesting contrast. The average number, when Labor was in office, was 190 working days lost per thousand employees. Under us it has been 74.

An incident having occurred in the gallery—

Mr SPEAKER —It ought to be recognised that attendants in this place have their duties to perform, and that is what they are doing.

Mr REITH —Last year the member for Canberra said that our legislation, the Workplace Relations Act, would be tested on a number of criteria, including how many disputes there were. We now hold the world record for the lowest level of industrial disputes.

Why has the Workplace Relations Act been so successful? The reason is that we now have decent bans in the Trade Practices Act against sympathy strikes or secondary boycotts. The Labor Party's policy is to repeal the very provisions of the Trade Practices Act which have given us industrial harmony. They will also repeal the provisions which provide a ban on primary boycotts affecting international trade. They will also abolish, we believe, from what they said last week, the provisions which prevent people being rewarded for taking industrial provisions—the same provisions we have federally as Bob Carr has in New South Wales Labor. They would abolish the Office of the Employment Advocate, which is a great help to people who want to have real choice as to whether they are in a union or not. That is another factor which has led to industrial peace that Labor will abolish. Lastly, under our legislation, we allow people to sit down at work and harmoniously enter into an Australian workplace agreement. What is the Labor Party's policy? Their policy is to repeal that provision.

Under us, we do now have record low levels of industrial disputes. That is a function of the excellent Workplace Relations Act. We now have it officially from the Labor Party that they will repeal the very provisions that have given us this fantastic outcome.