Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

that the Andrews government's own minister resigned. A Labor minister resigned in protest; the board had to be sacked. Sixty thousand volunteers were an uproar, with their ability to recruit undermined and their morale undermined. What sort of recklessness is this? You have to ask yourself: how beholden is the modern Labor Party to militant unions that they are prepared to take on 60,000 volunteers? I tell you, the Labor Party of Hawke, Wran and Keating would have never done that. But what we see now is a Labor Party that is captured by militant trade unions that will stop at nothing to secure their industrial purposes.

What about when the Labor Party talks about equality and fairness? What about the Warrnambool Fire Station, where the paid firefighters—the union members—refused to walk through the same door as the volunteers? They refused to walk through the same door is a volunteers; what is the message they are sending? We are defending the firefighters as they defend us.

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