John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I can inform the member for Mitchell of my concern, based on a report in the Australian Financial Review this morning, that the New South Wales government is going to require businesses that sign New South Wales government contracts valued at $3.4 billion a year to agree to several union-friendly provisions. These provisions include a union right of entry into any workplace at any time and for any reason, including the recruitment of members. It is reported by the Financial Review that if companies breach these conditions they lose the government contracts and are excluded from tendering for any contracts in the future. This, if implemented, would be a return to the dark old days of ultradomination by unions in Australian workplaces.

This is a glimpse into the future if Labor governed from coast to coast in Australia and governed also in Canberra. It would be a recipe for a return to the days when the unions ran the economy. That, of course, is still the gleam in the eye of Mr Greg Combet, the Secretary of the ACTU, who said that there used to be a day when the unions ran Australia and it would not be a bad idea if we went back to it. I think it would be a very bad thing if we went back to the days when the unions ran this country, and what the Iemma government is reported as proposing in New South Wales is nothing more than a return to old-fashioned union thuggery and intimidation. It would represent bad regulation that would drive business away from New South Wales and, if it were repeated around Australia, would do a great deal to pull back the strong economic performance of this country of which the OECD reported so glowingly overnight.

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