Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for her question, and I can assure her and her constituents that the government is determined to restore the rule of law on building construction sites around Australia. Under the Leader of the Opposition, when he was the minister for workplace relations, the rule of the jungle was allowed to reign. But the coalition is moving to protect the rights of both employers and employees. We are doing that by reinstituting the Australian Building and Construction Commission, by starting the Registered Organisations Commission and by holding a royal commission into union corruption and union thuggery, all of which have been opposed by the Leader of the Opposition or, at best, have received lukewarm support, in the case of the royal commission. But there has been outright opposition to the Registered Organisations Commission and the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

We are also moving to align civil and criminal penalties for union officials with those for company directors, because we believe that union officials should be subject to exactly the same rules and regulations as company directors. And on that final point, let me say that we have had some support from unlikely sources. The national secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Paul Howes, who has announced his retirement today, has given unlikely support to the coalition for these changes. He said:

I can't see any reason why anyone in the movement would fear having the same penalties that apply to company directors. If you're a crook, you're a crook.

Who could disagree with that statement made by Paul Howes, the now-retiring national secretary of the Australian Workers Union? But it seems that the Leader of the Opposition disagrees with that statement. Paul Howes, the national secretary of the AWU, is showing the real leadership that the Labor Party lacks in this place. He is the kind of union leader and union secretary who actually puts workers first. The Leader of the Opposition is incapable of showing that kind of strength of leadership, because he is too scared to stand up to the union bosses who put him in the job. He cannot stand up to the union bosses because the faceless men of the Labor Party put him into power. The people's choice is sitting over there; the union's choice is sitting in front of the Prime Minister—

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