"You can frame that: WorkChoices, dead, buried, cremated, that's my signature," Mr Abbott said.

The stunt recalled Mark Latham's 2004 signature on an oversize cardboard statement promising a Labor government would keep interest rates low.

AAP writes: But Mr Abbott also refused to rule out any future changes to the government’s industrial laws, the Fair Work legislation.

‘Obviously I can’t give an absolute guarantee about every single aspect of workplace relations legislation,’’ Mr Abbott said.

The previous Howard government introduced Work Choices and claimed its deregulation of workplace relations improved employment levels, but unions said it disadvantaged workers.

Ms Gillard said the camouflage that Mr Abbott tried to create around the issue hadn’t even lasted two days.

‘‘It’s abundantly clear that if Mr Abbott became prime minister the worst aspects of Work Choices would be back,’’ she told reporters in Townsville.

Workplace Relations Minister Simon Crean and Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner also sustained the attack against the opposition leader.

‘‘This is a person who has been using weasel words all his life, I believe he’s using weasel words now when he says he’s not going to change the (Fair Work) legislation,’’ Mr Crean told ABC Television.

A suggestion by opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz that the coalition might ‘‘tweak’’ current laws needed assessment, he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-election/mr-squiggle-abbotts-scrawl-over-the-workchoices-finish-line-20100719-10gpr.html

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