Wilson Tuckey (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Grayndler protested a little while ago about an MPI being granted to the back bench of the government. If you ever wanted a good reason why that should happen more often, just listen to his speech. It took him until the last minute to say anything about the subject, namely:

The threat to Australia’s job security, lifestyle and values of radical trade union influence.

I sat throughout the whole 15 minutes waiting for him to say that the Skilled Engineering run-through never happened, or to condemn it. When a group of women working in a workplace of which the trade union movement—Mr Johnson and Mr Mighell—did not approve, they kicked the door in and sprayed a pregnant worker with a fire extinguisher. When one of them was caught and identified—they all had disguises on—did that person rat on the other five or six? No. That is radical trade unionism, and this parliament should be debating it. Maybe before this debate is over we will hear something about those matters from the opposition in this place.

By coincidence on 26 February 1981 my maiden speech to this House was on industrial relations. I chose to select a quote from a left-wing academic, a fellow called Paul Johnson, who had written prior to that time an article called ‘Trade unionism is killing socialism: the English experience’. In part, he said:

Above all, the economic organisation of society, the way in which wealth is invested, and rewards distributed, to all of us who are its members, should have become the function of democratic governments.

But this is not what has happened. The unions have refused to recognise the limits of their historical role. They have not only rejected the idea of a progressive abdication, and the shift of their social and economic function to the political process, but they have flatly declined to allow the smallest diminution of their power to press the sectional interests they represent.

Indeed they have steadily, ruthlessly and indiscriminately sought to increase that power. In recent years, and in particular in the last five years, they have exhausted or beaten down any opposition and have finally succeeded in making themselves the arbiters of the British economy. This has not come about as part of some deeply laid and carefully considered plan. It is not part of a plan at all.

It has been, essentially, a series of accidents. Huge unions each pursuing wage claims at any cost—

and most of the cost is to the worker—

having successfully smashed other elements in the State—governments, political parties, private industry, nationalised boards—now find themselves amid the wreckage of a deserted battlefield. The undoubted victors.

They did not plan the victory—they do not know what to do with it now they have got it. Dazed and bewildered they are like medieval peasants who have burnt down the lord’s manor.

He stated further:

What next? They have no idea as they did not think ahead to this sort of situation, and indeed are not equipped by function or experience to embark on positive and constructive thinking. That is not their job! Here we come to the heart of the matter. The trade union is a product of 19th century capitalism. It is part of that system. Against powerful, highly-organised and ruthless capitalist forces, it had an essential even noble part to play. But when those forces are disarmed, when they are in headlong retreat—indeed howling for mercy—the union has no function to perform.

They are not my words; they are the words of a well-known and respected left-wing academic. This is what this election is about: reinstating the power of a mob of troglodytes who have been, through the proper legislative process, disarmed by this government to the benefit of workers.

In 1945, a worker could keep his wife and family on £6 a week. They were the ones who demanded more and more cash. The comparative figure today is $1,000 a week. They have done such a good turn for the workers that one family income of $1,000 a week is no longer enough. That is what the productivity argument is about. For about 13 years of the Hawke government and the accord, wages went up in large amounts, and at the end of 13 years buying power was less than when the Hawke government got elected. By trying to keep a lid on wages and trying to ensure that people are properly rewarded for their productivity, this government has delivered a 20 per cent increase in buying power. We have ads on television—and photographs, as the member for Moreton said—of the Leader of the Opposition in a bright shiny new welding helmet. I can tell you that if I have a welding helmet on, I have a MIG welding torch in my hand, because I can use it. The reality is that in this regard the Australian people are supposed to think that there is going to be a new era. ‘Trust me,’ says the Leader of the Opposition. That is the real issue.

There was a pretty interesting experience in Western Australia. I went to the north of Western Australia—close to the Pilbara—back in 1958. I saw the initial development. Because it developed under total trade unionism, every so often there would be a sudden rush of cars coming down south through Carnarvon. The question was asked: ‘What are you doing, fellas?’ The answer was: ‘The union has called a strike over the colour of the tablecloths in the mess hut and we’re going to be out for six weeks. We’re going to Perth.’ While they were out for six weeks, no ships were loaded. What did our customers—the suppliers of those jobs—the Japanese, do? They went to Brazil and they said to Brazil, ‘You’d better open up some of your iron ore mines, because we want someone we can trust.’ All the confidence up there was lost. What else went on? You did not have one driver for a bulldozer on every shift; you had two. You could not sit them both in the seat, so you had an air-conditioned shed in which all the extra blokes could play cards. If you happened to be a train driver and you took the train out to the mine site on a day trip you got a crib. There is nothing wrong with that—except that it had to include half a side of lamb. And you know where that went: straight into the family freezer when mum cut the sandwiches for the driver. That is what it was like up there, and the big investors were travelling the world trying to find other places to invest their money.

It was the Court government that brought in the first AWAs. All those fake jobs disappeared and the wages of the other blokes who stayed to drive the machinery went up $20,000 a year. They got the money—the extra $20,000 a year—and other people got real jobs. The profits of the owners—those ‘terrible people’, as they were referred to by the member for Grayndler—go into the superannuation of other Australians. That is where their profits go. You would think that they spend it all on yacht trips round the Isle of Capri the way the Labor Party carries on. But the fact of life is that when they got confidence through the Court government they started investing. When all of a sudden the minerals boom came along, the Pilbara was ready. The coal industries of the east coast were not ready.

The Gallup government came in. They were going to knock all that out. It is pity that I have not got time to read all the quotes that I have here about what happened in Western Australia the minute the Gallup government took over—no ticket, no start; the lot. But Gallup started to worry about Western Australia—as the present Premier is—and he decided that he would not change the rules that the Court government had put in. He did a Tony Blair. What happened then? The unions withdrew all their money. That is published in the West Australian. They stopped paying affiliation fees and the Gallup government rolled over. That is the future in this parliament if some time in the future the Labor Party become the government and are put under financial pressure. Where else do they get the money? If they get put under financial pressure, they will do as they are told. When they are told by Kevin Reynolds to jump, they will say, ‘How high?’

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