Mr FALINSKI (Mackellar) (11:17): We've heard it all now: the Labor Party's worried about multinationals closing their doors in Australia. Well, I never thought I'd see the day when they'd send someone all the way from Perth to tell this government that the problem that we face is that multinationals are closing their doors in Australia. That's it: we had it wrong all this time. Most of this time we thought the unreconstructed economics of 'Chairman' Swan that has guided the Labor Party through the mists of time and election failure would get them through, but apparently the problem all along was multinationals closing their doors. This message really resonates with me—and has resonated with me for a long time. But this is what we get from the Labor Party: they pre-select and elect to this parliament—through fluke, I assume, not good management—such economic thoroughbreds as the member for Fraser, Professor Leigh, and what do they do with them? They leave them languishing on the back bench as far away from the dispatch box as they can. It is ironic, because I find myself standing about as far away from the dispatch box as you can get without joining the National Party, so I'm probably in a worse position than the member for Fraser. Nonetheless, we've got plenty of experts on economics. We've got plenty of people. Our front bench is full of people who understand how the economy works, and not once have they stood up in this chamber and complained about the fact that multinationals are finding it a bit difficult in the economy at the moment. That's what we have here. Mr Stephen Jones: He's got nothing! Mr FALINSKI: We'll get to you: don't worry, Jonesy, we're coming to you. As the member for Fraser knows, if you want to get real wage growth going, underemployment down and create economic opportunity, you have to get productivity moving. The only way to get productivity moving is through innovation. How do you get people to innovate? You get people to innovate when you reward risk and forgive failure. What is the Labor Party doing every single day of the week, besides bemoaning the fate of multinationals in our economy? They make sure that if you fail you get punished, and if you succeed you also get punished. This is the party that created an industrial relations system that ensures that enterprise agreements are rolling over and being terminated at record numbers. We only have to look at McDonald's. I don't know why the member is leaving. Dr Aly: Because you're giving me a headache! Mr FALINSKI: We were about to talk about her favourite thing—a multinational—and then she leaves through the door. I thought I was making it relevant for her. McDonald's recently, with the support of the union, went to the Fair Work Commission and said, 'We want to roll over our enterprise agreement.' The Fair Work Commission has made it so impossible for them to do that. The enterprise agreement has now lapsed and all their workers will go back on the award. Does this mean higher wages? No; it means lower wages. Does this mean more hours for hardworking Australians trying to get ahead? No. McDonald's has made it clear that they will have to close a significant number of their stores for hours that they would prefer to have them open, because of the complexity of the award system that they support, that they aid, that they abet, that they refuse to reform. And the member for Fraser knows this. The member for Fraser can pretend otherwise, but I know that he and Professor Leigh are fully aware that the huge problem in this country is the rigidity of the industrial relations system—a system that they created, but their major donors won't let them talk about reforming. So don't be fooled when they walk into this place and bemoan the fact we have underemployment and that real wages aren't growing fast enough, because they are the real obstacles to any increase in real wages, they are the obstacles to innovation in this country, and they are the obstacles to ordinary Australians being able to get ahead. They are the obstacles to young Australians from being able— Mr Perrett: Seven years! Seven years! Mr FALINSKI: The member for Morton says we've been here for seven years. Give us your proposal on industrial relations that doesn't involve embedding the special power and privilege of your largest donors at the centre of it, because you don't care about Australians; you only care about the donors that you get. You're appalling. You should be ashamed of yourselves for even bringing this motion to this House.