Senator ABETZ (Tasmania—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service and Minister for Employment) (14:20): I fully agree with the vast majority of Senator Collins's question. The Toyota management and their workforce did work together; they did go on a journey together. In fact, the Toyota management wanted to put a proposition to their workforce, and so lacking in confidence were the AMWU union bosses that they sought court intervention to say that management should not be allowed to ask workers whether they wanted to vote for a proposition or not. My intervention was simply to determine whether or not— Senator Jacinta Collins: They didn't ask you to intervene. Senator ABETZ: Senator Collins interjects, saying, 'Toyota didn't ask you to intervene.' You know what? I do not do the bidding of the union movement or the employers. I act in the national interest. Opposition senators interjecting — Senator ABETZ: I know that is a foreign concept to those opposite, but we act in the national interest. To make it clear, we were not asked by Toyota to intervene. We intervene in the national interest, when we believe that there are matters to be determined. So we did not enter that debate in a partisan manner, to say that that which Toyota sought to put to its workforce was either right or wrong, good, bad or indifferent. All we were saying is the legislation does actually allow, and the enterprise agreement does actually allow, the proposition to be put to the workers. Why, Senator Collins, are you and the Labor Party and the union bosses so scared of giving workers a voice and a decision in genuine industrial democracies? Senator Jacinta Collins: I thought this was questions to you. Senator ABETZ: You did not want the workers to have a voice and, as a result, amongst all the other things, they will now no longer get that opportunity. (Time expired)