11 MPs ejected from Australian parliament

November 2, 2005

A record number of 11 MPs were ejected from the Australian Parliament during the uproar that ensued the introduction of the government's controversial industrial relations legislation.

The opposition Industrial Relations Spokesman, Stephen Smith said that the speaker had only applied his ruling to the opposition side of the house and said that "My impression sitting in the chamber was that there was plenty of noise coming from both sides".

The new bill of nearly 700 pages sees the end of Australia's 100 year old wage fixing system and will push more workers onto individual contracts, allowed award conditions like penalty rates to be bargained away and removed unfair dismissal laws for most workers.