Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great pleasure that I rise to support my friend and colleague the member for Wright in the motion that he puts, as well as the member for Moncrieff, who seconded the motion. Today a leader of the Australian union movement could well be found admitting in private 'Now is the winter of our discontent.' Tarnished by the rolling scandals of the Health Services Union, plagued by factional warfare among its leadership and struggling to maintain a declining membership, which is now at only 12 per cent of the private sector workforce: these are the realities of the current union landscape.

Yet, despite these seismic developments, many on the other side of the House continue to maintain, as if nothing has happened, that it is business as usual. They continue to roll up to the ACTU conferences chanting Soviet era songs and pledging their allegiance. But they are in denial, for the HSU scandal is something more than a passing event. It goes to the core of good governance and the standards of transparency and accountability that we expect from our organisations and our community leaders. It goes to the heart of what we consider to be criminal behaviour and subject to significant punishment. This is what the motion put forward by my friend and colleague the member for Wright is about. It is about saying that we expect the government to hold unions and their leaders to the same standards that we would expect of our companies and their directors. It is not enough for AWU secretary Paul Howes to simply say:

... the alleged actions of a small minority in a relatively small sector have stained the reputations of the majority ...

and to use that as an excuse for not supporting wide-scale reform. Nor is it sufficient for Jeff Lawrence to say "union members have a right to be confident that their money is being well spent" but then not put in place real changes that will prevent a repeat of what happened at the HSU. The opposition has a plan that the government should support, a plan to pass legislation that will see registered organisations subject to the same rules and the same penalties set out in the Corporations Act 2001. Currently trade unions, like employer groups, work as registered organisations with obligations under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009. Such obligations include not using their position for personal gain, ensuring the appropriate use of members' money and acting at all times in the best interests of the members. However, the penalties are not nearly as significant as those found in the Corporations Act. For example, under section 287 and 288 of the Fair Work Act, civil penalties for using information to the detriment of the organisation or for personal advantage could involve fines of up to only $2,200 for an individual, and no criminal provisions apply. In contrast, under section 184 of the Corporations Act, criminal offences could lead to a fine of up to $200,000 for an individual and/or imprisonment for up to five years. This is what now is required.

What is more, the coalition is not prepared to leave Julia Gillard's creation Fair Work Australia and its general manager to police to enforce or to investigate these new obligations on registered organisations. We need to separate the watchdog role of Fair Work Australia from its day-to-day role solving disputes and making agreements. This is why it took nearly three years or more for Fair Work to produce a report into the HSU, highlighting its institutional 'go slow' tactics as well as disconcerting levels of incompetence. Tony Abbott has said that in government we will establish a new body, the Registered Organisations Commission, which will enforce these new compliance organisations, educate members of registered organisations about their rights, and also act as a repository for complaints from its members.

This motion is not an attack on unions. In fact, there are many good people who are members of unions. They make a significant contribution to the betterment of our country. But what this is about is an attack on corruption and building levels of responsibility, accountability and transparency. With more than 150 findings by Fair Work against HSU, and 70,000 low-paid workers being short-changed by thousands of dollars wasted and misused something needs to be done. This motion goes some way towards that end.

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