Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank members of the House for their support for this most important discussion that we need to have. Australians are fearful of the ‘no ticket, no start’ regime being offered by the Labor Party. Never before in the history of the Australian Labor Party has it been so heavily influenced by radical trade union elements. Those opposite have sat idly by while the Australian Council of Trade Unions has distributed to people around the country a device by which they mean to manipulate ordinary, everyday Australians—to put pressure on them, to telephone canvass them and to threaten to door knock them about how they intend to vote in the next federal election. They have sat idly by and allowed this to happen. And why wouldn’t they when 100 per cent of the members of the Australian Labor Party in this place are themselves trade union members? They represent an ever declining group of Australians—just 15 per cent—who by their own choice are members of trade unions, yet 100 per cent of the Labor caucus are trade union members.

Virtually 70 per cent—that is 27 out of 40, and I am counting people who are shadow parliamentary secretaries—of the Labor Party shadow ministry are former union officials. They come from an even smaller elite within Australian society. They have, in their arrogance, satisfied themselves that union leadership, union dominance and union control of the government are what everybody in Australia wants. I know—people in my electorate have told me this—how offended they are by the threat of a ‘no ticket, no start’ regime. That will mean that you will not be able to enter a workplace, as you can now, as a private contractor to do a painting job on a building site unless you are affiliated with a union. It will mean a return to all of the daft things of 20 years ago. The Prime Minister is here. He will remember the dim sim allowance. The workers all went out on strike while building the Darling Harbour project. We will return to the time when an enormous number of days were lost in strike action in the country. At present we are at the lowest level of strikes recorded since 1913. Strikes peaked in this country in December 1992 when 104.6 days were lost per thousand in all industries. There is no doubt in the minds of the majority of members in this place that this is a matter of absolute urgency and a matter of absolute public importance.

Fifty five per cent of those opposite are also former trade union officials. The unions themselves have donated $50 million to the Australian Labor Party in the last 11 years—and now it is call-up time; now it is time for a repayment on that investment. The unions have contributed the vast majority of the Leader of the Opposition’s $100 million election campaign war chest—$100 million has been taken from workers, forced from workers, to join a union—

See this speech in context