Depending on which side of the chamber a MP sat, the rights of public servants at work have either been "unfairly diminished" or had "fairness restored".
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The government passed its industrial relations bill overnight, with both Katter Party MPs and Member for Cook Billy Gordon voting with Labor.
The bill, which includes the reinstatement of the union encouragement clause, gives additional powers to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in making wage determinations, reviews the "award modernisation" process the former government began, and allows employees to collectively re-bargain any individual contracts, which includes doctor contracts.
But the government was accused of "rushing through" the legislation, with the parliamentary committee charged with reviewing the bill given just 17 days to work through it.
While unions were widely consulted on the changes, other stakeholders, such as the Local Government Association of Queensland, complained they were not given the opportunity to canvass the issues within the legislation and speak to their own members about it.
The government said the "urgency" with which they wanted the bill passed was due to the "award modernisation and certified agreement process" - for collective bargaining to begin, the legislation had to be in place.
But the Opposition, which fought heavily against the union encouragement policy it had scrapped being reinstated, citing privacy concerns, said the legislation was about "repaying unions".
"I turn my attention to the title of the bill, which contains the words 'restoring fairness'," LNP MP Tarnya Smith said during Thursday night's marathon debate.
"Let us be truthful about it. Let us call it what it is. This could be the Industrial Relations (I'm doing this out of spite) bill. It could be called the Industrial Relations (The piper has to be paid) bill, otherwise known as the 'union bosses' bill.
"Or it could be called the Industrial Relations (let's put a chokehold on the public sector non-union members employee) bill. I think that is more apt."
IR Minister Curtis Pitt defended the legislation as "repairing the damage done by three years of the
disgraceful LNP government's changes to the working conditions of many
government workers".
"The contributions from this debate from the LNP members indicate clearly that they have not learned a thing from the recent election," he said.
"(The LNP) does not care about a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, it does not care about fair conditions and it does not care about job security.
"The LNP does not like unions, because they provide all those things for workers."
The Opposition was defeated in attempting to move motions allowing workers to "opt out" of having their information sent to unions, as part of the union encouragement clause, and to keep the doctor contracts.
