Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against this disallowance motion, and in doing so I cannot help but wonder why you would want to oppose this training visa. I have looked at this from every angle. I have listened to the specious arguments of the opposition, I have read the transcript from the other house and, for the life of me, I cannot find one sound reason for the opposition to seek to disallow this regional apprenticeship visa—not one sound reason. It is as though Labor has no sense of what has been going on in the last five to 10 years in the labour market and certainly no sense of what is in the interests of regional Australia. That is no surprise.

There can be only one reason, and we have seen it all through the workplace relations debate. It is all to do with the relationship between the ALP and the three most vociferous unions on this matter. I refer to the metal workers, the AMWU; the meat workers, the AMIEU; and the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, the LHMU. Let us look at their campaign contributions to the ALP since 1995-96—the last 10 years.

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