John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today it is a pleasure to rise and speak on the Turnbull government's Fair Work Amendment (Corrupting Benefits) Bill 2017, most particularly because yesterday I had the opportunity to speak on our Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017 as well. They are both proof of the focus of the Turnbull government on protecting workers and being a true friend of workers right throughout this nation.

On 22 March 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull introduced this bill to the House to criminalise the giving, receiving or soliciting of corrupting benefits between employers and trade unions. This bill, then, bans such corrupt and secret payments made between employers and trade unions. It also requires disclosure by both employers and unions of financial benefits they stand to gain as a result of an enterprise agreement, before employees vote on that agreement.

Those opposite would have Australian workers believe that there is no need for such legislation, that there is nothing to see here, that unions are guaranteed to always act in the best interests of members, but sadly and unfortunately we know that that is not always the case. It reminds one, I must say, of the Charles Dickens character Mr Pecksniff, a man who liked to take the moral high ground, always pompously setting about the appearance of being involved in the betterment of society whilst actually doing very little. Isn't that what those opposite do here on a daily basis? They strive to maintain a facade of representing workers but repeatedly fail to do so. Perhaps the Labor Party should come out and admit the wrongdoing and tell the truth about the way that some of their leaders and union mates actually treat union members and workers.

Let us start to have a look at what has been really happening in recent times. The Heydon royal commission uncovered a raft of payments between unions and employers that were designed to ensure that companies got favourable treatment from those unions. The commissioner called those payments 'corrupting benefits'. Some officials were paid private kickbacks that they used for personal gain. Some officials used threats to extort money from employers to simply bolster the union coffers. Others extracted payments to bolster their status and power, particularly within the Labor Party—as we learned through the evidence presented.

As the Prime Minister has very clearly outlined in this House on repeated occasions, Thiess John Holland paid AWU Victoria $300,000 plus GST while they built the EastLink freeway extension in Melbourne's eastern suburbs for services that were never provided and nor were the payments disclosed to AWU members or employees. ACI operations paid AWU Victoria around $500,000 while they laid off workers at their Spotswood glass manufacturing facility, and it was predominantly used to offset a loan to renovate the union's Victorian office and for other general union costs. Clean Event paid AWU Victoria $75,000 to maintain an enterprise agreement that paid cleaning workers well below award rates and stripped them of penalty rates and shift loadings over time—again, never disclosed to those cleaning workers.

Unibelt paid the now opposition leader $32,000 to fund his 2007 election campaign manager while they were negotiating an enterprise agreement with the AWU, of which of course he was national secretary at the time. Chiquita Mushrooms paid AWU Victoria $24,000 while it was casualising its mushroom-picking workforce—again, never disclosed to the workers. Winslow Constructors paid AWU Victoria around $200,000 and provided lists of employees names that were secretly signed up to the union with the payments hidden behind false invoices—such was the evidence that we saw presented to the commission.

The government is rightly focused, therefore, on ensuring full disclosure of any payments and most definitely on banning illegitimate payments as the key objectives of this bill. The Heydon royal commission called them 'corrupting benefits', as I said, and recommended that they be outlawed. We are therefore amending the Fair Work Act to make it a criminal offence to give, receive, offer or to solicit such payments. This prohibition will apply to unions and employers.

The Labor Party, I believe, should support this important reform to outlaw corrupting benefits and payments because the writing is obviously on the wall. Independent research confirms that national union membership is on the decline, and I would suggest that is little wonder. Australians are wary of the stories of corruption and pocket lining and of those opposite who want to condone such behaviour and intimidation. In contrast, we on this side of House should not have to stand here and lecture the Labor Party about the role of union leaders but clearly we need to remind them to put their union members first.

Union leaders are paid by members to represent their interests, which members rightly should trust will be the first priority of their union. We on this side of the parliament stand for: a fair go, endeavour, working hard, doing the right thing, backing small business and workers right across the nation. It is time therefore to end these secret deals between unions and employers to ensure transparency of any payments because we are committed to the interests of workers and to the rule of law right throughout this great nation.

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