Senator O'NEILL (New South Wales) (17:21): We have just had a senator extolling the virtues of this incredible victory that she is claiming. I want to put on the record the words of James Campbell who, in describing this victory, from the point of view of those in government, said: The consequences of his victory for the people who clean Commonwealth offices is that from now on instead of having to pay them $22.02 an hour, their bosses will only have to pay them the award of $17.49. The reality is that it is going to make one awfully big difference to the people that we see cleaning this building. I am sure that the people sitting up in the gallery today—if it is their first time to come to the parliament—would understand the symbolic power of this place. There are many people who come here and expect this place to be in great shape. And our cleaners do that. They do an amazing job. In all the places I have worked—including in schools, where the symbolic power of having a clean place for people to work in is important as well—it matters that we have people who do the very important work of cleaning and that we pay them a fair and decent wage. We believe that we do important work in this place, and the cleaners who work here are proud to work here. It is my pleasure when arriving at parliament—often early in the morning—to see the cleaners out at the front gallery, the marble hall, cleaning it and preparing it for people to come and visit this great place, our parliament. They deserve a fair wage for the work they do. We think we are doing important work in this place, but it may not always be of interest to the media or public. One of the important things being discussed here today relates to 'repeal day'. It was the government's position on repeal day to try to make cutting red tape much more interesting than it really is. They say there are 8,000 unnecessary regulations. This is the work of government. Normal governments get on and do that kind of careful cleaning-up of regulations. We got rid of about 16,000 of them while we were in government, last time, but we did not create a media circus. We did not create a day of stunts. We got on with the important job of repealing things that needed to go. But Tony Abbott's repeal day— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator O'Neill, I would ask you to refer to the Prime Minister by his appropriate title. Senator O'Neill: Sorry, the Prime Minister's repeal day hurt many more people than it helped. We are seeing the consequences of it in this matter of public importance being discussed this afternoon. Included in the 10,000 proposed regulations to be removed by the Liberal government is one in the Australian Jobs Act that requires firms to source local goods and services for major construction projects. Another is in the Therapeutic Goods Act, with the removal of a clause requiring companies to release health warnings about their products. Caught up in this, among many other important pieces of legislation and regulation, was the Commonwealth Cleaning Services Guidelines. This is really about a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and those opposite will attack it at every single turn. These cuts that have been sneakily pushed through mean that Commonwealth cleaners will lose up to $172 per week. One cleaner is on the record as saying that the loss of money will mean that she will not be able to drive to work. So we have this mantra about creating jobs when the government is actually making it impossible for people to get to work, because of the savage cuts coming in through this legislation. It is good that Archbishop Prowse has gone on the record saying that there is a moral dimension here and that a wage is an important part of a job. It is not just having a job, it is being able to live with that job, being able to live on a decent wage. The sneaky, disgraceful way in which this regulation has been brought into effect is documented in the paper—the Herald Sun—today. It explains: But Labor and the Greens were not counting on the Abetz cunning. The Employment Minister accepted the Labor/Greens amendment but before it could come into effect he revoked the regulations. This is the type of hidden agenda and sneaky process that we are seeing from this government. It does not want any transparency. It wants to cut cleaners' wages. It wants to hide the fact that it has done it. It wants to hide the fact that it has taken away important legislation and regulation at the cost of ordinary Australians. It is a government that wants to tax people. It is cutting education, it is cutting health and it is cutting wages. The worst days of Work Choices are signalled very clearly by this disgraceful cunning piece of powerful, political play and the people who will pay the cost for it are our good cleaners. (Time expired)