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

It seems as though in every sitting week this big-business government marches out some new policy that attacks workers and their unions. It's a weak move and it shows a blatant contempt for the pay and conditions of Australian workers. Economic inequality is on the rise. We know that. We know the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. A government that cared about its people would do something to address this. It would take steps to even out the playing field, but this government does not care about people. This legislation, the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2017, is undeniably about politics. Nothing more. This is about politics. It's about removing power from the trade union movement and workers here in our country.

This has been the goal of the LNP for many, many years. They have sought to chip away at workers' rights whenever they can. Whether it's the malign Work Choices program, which Labor brought down 10 years ago next month, or the decision to strip away the penalty rates of hardworking Australians—700,000 Australians—which the government made in July, the actions of the Liberal and National parties show just how antiworker they are. Where their priorities lie is blatant, absolutely blatant. They've cut the take-home pay of workers and then given big business a tax cut—that's how blatant they are. They've cut millions and millions of dollars from vocational education and training at the same time as establishing the PaTH program, which encourages casualisation of an already vulnerable workforce. Now here they are once again, Mr Deputy Speaker—with the support, mind you, of Pauline Hanson and her band of anti-battler One Nation senators—proposing legislation that attacks the very movement that protects vulnerable workers and their pay and conditions.

It wasn't very long ago that the Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, declared that Australia was in a wage crisis following the prolonged period of low wages growth that has plagued our country under this Prime Minister's leadership. Lowe's British counterpart, Andy Haldane of the Bank of England, made a similar observation but attributed this crisis to the 'divide and conquer' techniques that have been utilised to lessen the workers' bargaining power. Effectively, he recognised that the attacks on unions are the direct cause of a sharp decline in wages growth—or, as a Sydney Morning Herald headline said recently, 'Tough rules on unions have stifled Australians' wages'. This is so very true. It's true that the more this government attacks unions, the more it attacks the working people of this country.

Mr Deputy Speaker, you just have to look at the industrial dispute that the workers at CUB, Carlton & United Breweries, were forced to endure at the end of last year and into this year. They were a unionised workforce, members of the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union. They had their contracts terminated by CUB. Hardworking Australians getting their kids off to school, going to work, doing what they needed to do to raise their families had their contracts terminated so that they could be rehired under a labour-hire program with significantly lower pay and conditions. This government did absolutely nothing to support those mothers and fathers, who were absolutely shafted by this awful deal. Do you know what? Only their unions stood up for them. I didn't hear any member of the government—I didn't hear the Prime Minister—standing up for those workers. There was not one peep. It was their union that banded together with non-union people in grassroots community style support to hold CUB to account. And they were successful. Fifty-five workers whose contracts had been terminated were reinstated with full pay and conditions. Do you want to know what workers do for their members? That's what workers do for their members, Mr Deputy Speaker. That was a clear example of how the union movement directly protects the wages and conditions of working people.

Meanwhile, on the other hand, we have Malcolm Turnbull and his government's attack, which is directly hurting the wages and conditions of working people and having a negative effect on our economy. Yet the government keep blindly flailing in the direction of the unions, not caring what they take down with them—not caring that they take down the wages of hardworking Australians, not caring that they take down the employment conditions that people work under, not caring that they take down the economic stability of this country. The government are willing to take down the economic backbone of this country, the working class. And for what? It's all for a poorly calculated political witch-hunt. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to gain from these measures except to further increase the already ballooning profits of big business and send millions and millions of dollars offshore.

This government, though—let's be very clear here—are also leading the way in demonstrating how to be poor employers as well. They are meant to be prime examples of how to be good employers but time and time again they have proven to be just the opposite. Just recently it was announced that, instead of employing local people in local jobs, they are contracting out Centrelink call centre work. They are contracting it out. They are cutting jobs of Australian workers and sending them overseas. This is sensitive, personal work that would benefit Australian call centre operators but, as everyone knows, this is a government that thinks about short-term monetary gains without ever thinking of the consequences. There are people in communities, including my community, who need work, are ready to work, getting up every day looking for work, going to their jobactive providers, knocking on doors and sending resumes; they are looking for work and here they have a government that is selling jobs offshore. Absolutely disgraceful.

Australia's anti-union laws have already gone too far—and this is not just a personal opinion. Australia's current laws on industrial action sit well below recognised international norms. The United Nations declares strike action to be a right and has done so since the early days following World War II. The restrictions imposed on Australians then put our country at odds with international standards. Yet this government wants to take things even further. Through this bill, the Prime Minister seeks to further breach international law just to satisfy his anti-worker agenda. That's right—to carry out his anti-worker attack, Prime Minister Turnbull is looking to contravene International Labour Organization core convention 87, the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention of 1948. To absolutely ignore international convention—to defy these laws that were negotiated with our friends and allies—to pursue a personal vendetta demonstrates absolute arrogance. It is complete arrogance not only to ignore our international allies but also to ignore the Australian people.

For 21 consecutive weeks Australian people have been telling the Prime Minister they are not happy. Surely he can't be oblivious to this. For 21 weeks that's what the Australian people have been telling this Prime Minister. They are sick of taxpayer-funded witch-hunts against unions, against working people. This will be this Prime Minister's downfall, let me tell you. The government tries to justify this legislation by claiming that it's based on recommendations from the Heydon royal commission, which, let's be very clear, was another failed LNP witch-hunt against unions that cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars—another failed witch-hunt that cost lots of money that could have been spent elsewhere.

We all know the justification for this legislation is blatantly false, and any semblance of a mandate is absolutely non-existent. Heydon recommended that the RO commissioners be granted standing to make applications and submissions to the Federal Court. This bill seeks to allow any interested party—like big business, employer organisations, a disgruntled former member or competing members in internal elections; it could even mean a business in a supply chain that isn't even in the same industry—to make application. It's a measure that is absolutely ripe for exploitation and, do you know what? That's what this government is counting on. The more time that unions are fighting baseless attacks by an interested party, whoever it may be, the less time they can be fighting against this government's attacks on workers. If a union is exhausting all of its resources fighting some disgruntled interested party, whoever that may be, they'll have less resources to fight against this government when it seeks, for example, to cut the take-home pay of vulnerable workers.

I'd call it clever political manoeuvring, of course, if their intentions weren't so blatantly obvious and their goals so unfair and so short-sighted. But, as it stands, I'll call it out for what it is: it's an act of spiteful desperation from a weak government that hates being called out for its antiworker policies. Unions are already heavily regulated—more heavily regulated than corporations and charities. This of course is due to continuous attacks from the Right. The government's claim that the provisions of this bill are equivalent to laws governing corporations is just another falsehood. For example, while a person can be disqualified from their role as a company director following a conviction for Corporations Act or Crimes Act offences, there is no equivalent to the fit and proper test that this bill seeks to introduce. So, the question really is: why are unions going to be held to a separate set of rules? Why?

Similarly, there is no public interest test for mergers of corporations. Let's be very clear about what this test is. It's been conjured up solely to make it more difficult for unions to collectively bargain. I'm a really proud trade unionist. I worked with United Voice for many, many years before coming into this House, and I stand really proud as a trade unionist. I fought for some of society's most vulnerable workers in this country. I know just how important unions are. I've stood up beside early childhood educators, beside brewery workers, beside security guards and cleaners, beside teacher aides and beside paramedics. I've stood beside a lot of those workers and stood up for their right to collectively bargain. It's with that experience of being somebody who stands up for the rights of people, the rights of workers—somebody who is proud to be a trade unionist and will be until the day I die—that I absolutely, wholeheartedly reject this blatant and callous attack on workers and this government's absolutely pathetic attempt to malign the trade union movement under this piece of legislation. Thank you.

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