Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Towards Transparency) Bill 2013 and I am very proud to do so. Unlike those opposite, who I am quite confident will not be distributing their speeches among the membership of the union movement, I am more than happy to distribute my speech. What we are standing for tonight is a level playing field between those who are covered by the Corporations Act—companies—the union movement and employer organisations. We want to make sure that the penalties and sanctions that apply to each of them are the same. In so saying, it is important to state that this bill is not a witch hunt against the unions, as those opposite have tried to claim, but rather is a hunt against corruption and cronyism. It is a hunt for those who do the wrong thing and those who abuse their position of power to tip off and abuse those they are there to protect.

It is not as though there has been no evidence of this kind of behaviour. Over the past few years, we have witnessed scandal after scandal. The first were scandals within the HSU. We have heard allegations about slush funds to do with the AWU. We have seen the rot within New South Wales Labor and smelled the stench of corruption. We know that there are already eight major investigations into possible improper conduct being conducted by Fair Work Australia that involve the Communications Workers Union, the Community and Public Sector Union, the Nursing Federation and United Voice. We have seen the Temby report, which said that there might have been up to $20 million of members' money improperly used by the HSU.

Despite these events, the government has lacked any conviction in pursuing justice for those who have been wronged. It defies belief that former union bosses and now ministers—the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency or even the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations—would so voraciously pursue a business that has allegedly been in the wrong, yet when it comes to corruption in the union movement turn a blind eye. If a company director neglected his responsibility to an employee's detriment, imagine the outcry from those opposite, all the ex-union bosses that now sit on the front bench. Why doesn't the same level of concern apply to union members who have lost out because of dodgy union bosses? Could it be that the only difference is that they know these people by first name? Could it be that they are former ministers in ALP governments? Or could it be that they are former ALP party presidents?

Let us be crystal clear about this: the only people who have anything to fear from this legislation are those who have done the wrong thing. It begs the question what they have to hide? Is it because they are so inherently entrenched within the union movement that the government refuses to introduce transparency?

If this legislation was enacted, union bosses who have been found to have broken the law will face the same penalties as company directors—not different penalties, not increased penalties, but the same penalties—and those who have committed a commensurate crime. This is an extremely important bill. The penalties are no more and no less than those faced in the corporate world: one law for all Australians, unlike the current situation in which a crooked union boss faces less punishment for the same offence committed by a company director.

Under the current legislation, the misuse of members' funds by unions bosses attracts a fine of around $6,600 for an individual, and the organisation can be fined a civil penalty of up to $33,000. What this legislation commits to doing is ensuring not only that the civil penalties are the same—up to $340,000—but also that criminal sanctions apply.

This legislation introduces good governance and good practices into registered organisations. I know that it is a foreign concept to the government, but we are standing up for good governance in this place. The government likes to claim that it stands up for workers' rights. It has the opportunity to demonstrate this tonight by supporting this bill. I hope they have the courage to do so.

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