Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today as a member of parliament, a teacher aide, and a teacher aide delegate and union member with my union, United Voice, to speak to the motion by the member for Wide Bay asking the House to acknowledge the findings of the royal commission into trade union governance. It is a shame he is not going to stick around to listen to what I have to say about trade unions; he may actually have learned something. I am pleased that the member moved this motion—and, again, I am very sad that he could not be bothered to stay around and listen—because, after an extraordinary but unbelievable spend of $46 million on the commission, just one referral has resulted. If 'widespread and deep-seated' is a measurement of one, either I need a new dictionary or Australia is a much smaller country than I imagined it to be. What I understand to be widespread and deep-seated in this country is support for a minimum wage, superannuation, penalty rates and our world-class universal healthcare system, Medicare—all of which were fought for and won by unions.

I also rise to speak to the parts of Mr O'Brien's motion that go to the House recognising the work of the joint police task force and calling on the Queensland government to overturn their decision to withdraw from participating in the task force. Madam Deputy Speaker, you really have to ask why a government that continues to pull our country into debt has committed another $21 million to further investigating charges that have already been investigated by the commission, which found there was nothing further to answer. In the state of Queensland, acting independently of the state government, police commissioner Ian Stewart was very staunch in his decision to remove Queensland Police from the union corruption investigation. Mr Stewart told the Courier Mail:

… he could not afford valuable police resources to be swallowed up by the joint Trade Union Taskforce when all matters referred to it were concluded.

Finally, I rise today to speak to point (4) in Mr O'Brien's motion. This part of the motion goes to 'union mates', as he calls them, and the 'lowest paid and most vulnerable workers'. What I wanted to share with Mr O'Brien—unfortunately, he has left the chamber—was that the last part of his motion is a bit of an oxymoron. I will explain what a union is. I will put it as plainly as I can. I will explain it as any early childhood educator would explain it to a five-year-old. 'Union' means joining together. It is pretty simple. And 'mate'? That is pretty easy too. It means a friend. When set in the context of work, 'union mates' means the joining together of friends where work is their common purpose. What I would say to Mr O'Brien is: union mates are workers. They are workers like paramedics, public servants and school cleaners. They are radiologists. They are teacher aides, just like I was. They are retail and hospitality workers. Plainly and simply, the Queensland government and the ALP support union mates because they support workers—workers paying their taxes, unlike many of the businesses that the Turnbull government wants to give a tax cut to. Workers are raising families while having to suffer a cut to their family tax benefit, and they are looking forward to owning their own home if this government will, just for a moment, stop opening every single front door to a millionaire investor.

This motion really is quite extraordinary, isn't it? There are more than 360,000 union members in Queensland. There was a $46 million royal commission into their unions, and one referral. So let's call this motion for what it is. It is just another attack on workers, an attack on working people who elected each and every one of us in this House to fight for decent jobs, safe jobs. They elected us. This motion is an attack on workers who have the right to insist that a government governs for high-quality health care and education for every Australian. This is for every Australian and this motion is an attack on a fair go in life.

I am a little ashamed that Mr O'Brien did not stick around. He felt this motion was incredibly important, today, this International Day of Happiness, but this motion does not go one way at all towards happiness for any worker in this country. It goes right towards—shamefully—demonising every worker in this country instead.

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