Mr FORREST (2:16 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House what the government has done, and is continuing to do, to help Australian businesses create jobs? Are the political affiliations of registered organisations under the Workplace Relations Act hindering the government's attempts to create jobs?

Mr ABBOTT (Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) —While the opposition peddles its weird conspiracy theories and blackens the name of Comcar drivers in its cheap attempt to make a political point, this government has been getting on with the job of delivering freedom, fairness and prosperity to the workers of Australia. I am very pleased to say that 950,000 new jobs have been created under this government's policy since March 1996. There are more jobs and there is higher pay; there are lower taxes and there are fewer strikes thanks to the policies of this government. We can deliver these good results to the Australian people because no-one owns us. We are not constrained by outside organisations to be a government of the unions, by the unions, for the unions. All this `What did you know?' and `When did you know it?' routine, which the Leader of the Opposition practises, is just a smokescreen for the civil war that is now raging inside the Australian Labor Party between the reformers who want it to be a real democracy and the reactionaries who want the Labor Party to be nothing but the political wing of the ACTU.

Yesterday in caucus, the member for Throsby said—and I am quoting from the Sydney Morning Herald—that she got the feeling from some in the party room that `anyone coming here with a union background was viewed as a liability to the Labor Party'. Let me put the member for Throsby to rights. It is not anyone; it is someone—if you live in Manly and head office foists you on the people of the Illawarra, then you are a liability. If you want to retire and you demand a safe seat in parliament as a reward for services rendered to the ACTU, then you are a liability. What those caucus members who are criticising the member for Throsby are really doing is talking in code for criticising the Leader of the Opposition because, let us face it, the Leader of the Opposition is the ultimate trade union hack.

Last week, the Leader of the Opposition said to the secret Labor meeting at the Campbelltown Catholic Club:

Mr Albanese —Mr Speaker, my point of order is obvious and it goes to relevance. This has nothing to do with the minister's portfolio and does not relate to the question he was asked.

The SPEAKER —The member for Grayndler will resume his seat. The standing orders that oblige the minister to have questions addressed to him relating to his portfolio are standing orders relating to questions, not to answers. The standing order, as it relates to answers, obliges the minister to be relevant to the question. I am having some difficulty with the relevance, but I concede that the question was asked about registered organisations and in that context it was difficult for me to deem it as irrelevant to the question asked.

The SPEAKER —The member for Lingiari is warned!

Mr ABBOTT —I am simply quoting the Leader of the Opposition who told the secret cabal at the Cambelltown Catholic Club:

Certainly the Leader of the Opposition ought to know because every position he has ever held has been delivered to him as a result of some factional deal. He was genetically programmed from birth to be a future leader of the Labor Party. He has never, ever lived in the electorate he purports to represent.

Mr Swan —Mr Speaker, we adopt the approach that the member is hard to ignore but it is well worth the effort.

The SPEAKER —Order! Has the minister concluded his answer?

Mr ABBOTT —Just yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition came out of the faction civil war and said that it is time for the Labor Party to reach out to other groups in the community, such as small business. I challenge the Leader of the Opposition to prove that he is serious, put up or shut up, and pass the government's fair dismissal legislation.