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

Oh, the sound effects man—he knows all about dirty tracks manuals produced by the union movement. He is right on cue—a former president of the ACTU. I wonder how many more of them we are going to hear from today. Mr Speaker, if you think I exaggerate and if you think I am being unfair to the trade union movement of Australia by calling this a dirty tracks manual, let me refer to page 46. This is a manual which is given to union activists who are going out and ringing up fellow unionists and knocking on their doors. Can you image the poor unionist in Western Australia who has got Kevin Reynolds knocking on his door—or Joe McDonald knocking or bashing the door down? Can you imagine how that person might feel? But if you think I am exaggerating any of this, on page 46 the instruction is given as to how to talk to your fellow unionists. After advising the union member—that is, the person doing the talking—to totally misrepresent the intent and the operation of the government’s law, there is a request at the bottom of this instruction that says—and listen very carefully to this:

Don’t Read Out (Minimum wage, 4 weeks annual leave ... 10 Sick/carer’s leave; 38 hour week; Unpaid parental leave)

In other words, what this manual does is to exhort the union canvassers to lie about the government’s policy. It warns the unions: ‘Don’t tell the truth about our policy, don’t tell the unionist that you are actually entitled to a guaranteed minimum wage, don’t talk about a 38-hour week, don’t talk about four weeks annual leave, don’t talk about sick leave or carers leave and don’t talk about parental leave, because the poor unionist might actually think that’s not a bad deal, so the last thing you want to do is to tell the truth about the government’s policy.’

This document is a dirty tricks manual, and it is calculated, through techniques of misrepresentation, push polling and the like, to achieve one purpose, and that is to install the Leader of the Opposition as Prime Minister. The union movement is not interested in workers; it is interested in power for union bosses, and this document, this manual, is all about achieving that objective, and the puppet along the way is going to be the Leader of the Opposition.

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