Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to bring to the attention of the House and the Australian electorate this evening, on this anniversary of Work Choices, the way that the unions in Australia scalp Australian workers. I want to demonstrate how these workers are scalped by the unions that purport to represent them. In my hands I have a letter from the Australian Workers Union to a constituent of mine in my electorate which is basically a letter of demand for money. I will outline this as I go. This letter is from Tim Daly, the branch secretary of the Western Australian branch of the Australian Workers Union. I will not go through the whole letter because it will take up the time, but it is basically saying: ‘Shock, horror’—as they have said before—‘the sky’s going to fall in, your jobs are gone and your family’s ruined. Anything that happens from now on can be blamed on Work Choices and industrial relations reform, and if you don’t do something about it all your jobs are gone.’ It says:

As part of the campaign aimed at sending a message to the federal government, the Western Australian branch of the AWU is throwing its support behind the Labor candidate in an effort to win the seat of Canning at the upcoming federal election, and I am writing to you to do the same. We will only keep what we are fighting for if we fight for it. This candidate is a staunch supporter of the workers and the union movement and deserves your support.

And it asks for financial support. It is obvious that the Australian Labor Party are trying to inject into this House another union hack. We know that coming our way are more union hacks. The poor old member from Maribyrnong is being replaced by a union hack, which is actually part of this letter. We know that poor old George Campbell, the champion of the Left, was rolled by Dougie Cameron of the Left because he was not radical enough. Less than 20 per cent of the workforce in Australia now belong to a union, yet something like 78 per cent of Labor representatives in both houses are union operatives. So it is just not representative.

Further, it says here in a brochure—I will not mention his name:

... your candidate for Canning.

John Howard is responsible for the most unfair and draconian industrial relations laws this country has ever seen.

So it is the same old mantra.

The laws will impact on you, your children, your family, for years to come.

Et cetera.

The AWU West Australian branch is targeting the federal seat of Canning with an AWU member as its candidate, and we need your help to defeat the Howard government.

Bill Shorten says:

To dismiss the Howard government we need to win the seat of Canning. Your financial support for this candidate for Canning campaign is vital.

Here is the rub:

To win we are seeking your $5 per week or $10 per fortnight from each member via electronic banking system. For more information, talk to your convenor or organiser.

The account details are:

Halls Head Community Bank, Bendigo Bank, BSB: 633000, ACC: 129088654 ...

And the signatories are the union organisers. This is more of a scalping of the Australian workers.

The Prime Minister has said that this country and the workers of this country have never seen the conditions so good, and that is true. On commercial television tonight the commentator said, ‘In the last two years, workers of this country have had a 13 per cent increase in real take-home wages.’ This is an independent commentator saying there has been a 13 per cent increase in the last two years. What happened in the 13 years of a Labor government? They bragged about driving wages down and over 13 years there was an increase in wages of something like just over two per cent. So who is the real friend of the worker? The real friend of the worker in this House is the coalition government. We are giving more workers jobs and we are giving more workers money in their pockets. The best thing you can do for a worker in this country is to give them a job.

I suspect that the union organisers that are writing this letter do not contribute one cent to this fighting fund, just as they do not go out on strike when their poor old workers go out on strike. They are using the workers, and I want to tell the people in the Australian Workers Union around Pinjarra and Alcoa: ‘You are being used by your union as a slush fund to try and run a political campaign. You should know that you are being stripped of funds.’ I heard today that they are even being hit for $1,500 as a one-off payment for this fighting fund. It is a disgrace and I will rail against it. (Time expired)

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