And former workplace relations minister Joe Hockey says when he took over the portfolio: "I don't think many ministers in cabinet were aware that you could be worse off under WorkChoices, and that you could actually have certain conditions taken away.
"Once I started to raise those issues with colleagues and they became more informed of the impact of WorkChoices, we introduced the fairness test."
"I don't think many ministers in cabinet were aware that you could be worse off under WorkChoices"?! You've got to be joking. That was the whole point!
Who were these morons? Why did they THINK the Business Council of Australia was pushing for it? A love of paying higher salaries to their employees? How can you get yourself elected to parliament for the Liberal Party and not realise that the whole point of smashing unions and undoing protections is so that corporate Australia can save money by paying people less? We're supposed to believe that this never occurred to them?
Still, maybe we're hearing these revelations because the former Howard Ministry would prefer to be thought stupid than evil.
Unfortunately for them, of course, it's not exactly an either/or...
