The Howard government deliberately suppressed masses of data on the ill effects of its Work Choices legislation, Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard says.Ms Gillard said the former government attempted to shoot the messenger when it attacked Sydney's Workplace Research Centre ahead of last November's federal poll.
Former industrial relations minister Joe Hockey and other senior ministers accused the centre of political bias last October, after the release of its AustraliaWork study.
The study found low-skilled workers on AWAs were paid $100 less per week than equivalent workers on collective agreements.
Speaking at the centre's annual conference today, she said the organisation's dire warning about Work Choices had been proved true.
"This animosity between the previous government and the centre can be summed up in three words - it's about the government shooting the messenger," Ms Gillard said.
"We know that the previous government was sitting on masses of data it had to suppress because it proved the critics of Work Choices were right."
The centre is a 20-year-old research organisation based in the Sydney University's economics and business faculty.
"Joe Hockey said famously, or perhaps infamously, that the centre was full of, and I quote `former trade union officials who are parading as academics'," Ms Gillard said.
"Given the way the Liberals treated higher education I'm not sure what words he meant as the worst insult - trade union official or academic - both were insults under the former government but certainly not under us."
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