Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I address that question in the rest of my speech, and I will first go back to where I was in my speech to address the interjection that was just made. The burden of this extra regulation will fall not just on the full-time, salaried union leadership but also on the rank-and-file members who are elected to governing bodies. If criminal activity occurs in any organisation, it should be dealt with by the appropriate body, criminal code and criminal act. Nobody is excusing the behaviour of one or two individuals, but you cannot punish the entire institution of registered organisations for the actions of one or two individuals.

I go back to talking about the rank-and-file people I was discussing before. The government has wrongly claimed that the reforms in this bill will protect members' interests and give greater democracy to union members. However, this bill will actually achieve the opposite. Rank-and-file members will be reluctant to participate in governing bodies if they are exposed to the large fines proposed in this bill. Almost all unions at a branch and national level have large, democratic governing bodies and are not composed of the Craig Thomson types you refer to but of delegates who are rank-and-file members and who are directed to deal with the business of the union.

Who are these rank-and-file members? I will highlight two workers who are part of their union and who are rank-and-file delegates responsible for making sure that our unions are the democratic structures they seek to be. There is the president of United Voice in Victoria, Marie Angrilli, who works for Spotless as a part-time school cleaner. She is not one of the union heavies that the other side would make her out to be; she is the proud president of an organisation and a volunteer, and the wage she draws is not from the union members' resources but from her paid job. She is not, as the government would suggest, one of the high-salaried union heavies who are trying to gobble up all the union's resources for their own purposes. She is not just a person cleaning on the shop floor; she is the president of an organisation, and her job will become harder under the rules in the bill. Another rank-and-file member in a leadership position in a union is the president of the rail operations division of the RTBU, Bob Bassett, who is a full-time conductor on V/Line. Both are hardworking, ordinary people being demonised by the government, which suggests that they are the ones who are sucking up all the resources of union members. These are the sort of people who are in charge of our unions. They are not the sort of people the government would claim they are.

It is not only the trade unions who are opposed to this bill; a number of employer organisations are also opposed not just to the contents of the bill but also to the speed with which it is being forced through. I note the submission of the Australian Industry Group to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee. I never thought that I would be on the same side as the Australian Industry Group on a matter of workplace relations debated in this House, but I am. Just as our union delegates come from the rank and file, the Australian Industry Group has 85 volunteer counsellors who are elected from their incorporated members in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Like many of our union delegates who are responsible for running their unions, these officers are volunteers: they give up their own time with no payment for their role. This bill seeks to make their job harder. It imposes new regulations on the volunteers who make sure their organisation is run properly. At the AIG, volunteer officers are responsible for determining policies and for ensuring that high standards of financial management and accountability are maintained. Yet the government's bill would introduce new regulation which would make their voluntary job harder. This would mean that they would have to either spend less time in their business or give up their role as a volunteer in a registered organisation.

It is important that legislation governing registered organisations remains balanced and appropriate. I quote from the Australian Industry Group's submission to the to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee inquiry on this bill. It says:

Unlawful conduct within one organisation must not be used as an excuse to impose unfair laws or an excessive compliance burden upon all registered organisations.

With this quote I have addressed the concerns raised by the member for Hindmarsh. I also note that AIG said Australia is a signatory to the ILO's Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948.

See this speech in context