Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Whatever it takes, and at what cost? We began to learn that back in 2013. In his desperate efforts to gain the then CFMEU's support, the Leader of the Opposition was once again ready to promise almost anything, to the detriment of his party and the Australian people. He agreed to the CFMEU's demands that he oppose any industry specific regulator, including the one he himself established in 2012. He agreed to oppose any form of building code, despite the clearly established need. He agreed to oppose any kind of compulsory evidence-gathering powers for a regulator in the building industry, despite the ever-mounting evidence, now proven, of staggeringly widespread union illegality. Having made his deal with the lawless construction union and linked his self-interest to theirs, it is difficult to know what representatives of the CFMMEU would have to do before the Leader of the Opposition would not stand next to them. Justice Geoffrey Flick said of them:

It is difficult, if not impossible, to envisage any worse conduct than that pursued by the CFMEU.

This is a union that has been fined almost $15 million, far more than has ever been seen before.

It's an organisation with around 70 officials personally before the courts. Its boss, John Setka, by the way, has been widely congratulated by those opposite for having blackmail charges dropped last week. Everyone knows it's not unusual at all for the DPP to drop charges in legal proceedings. What is unquestionable is that John Setka has been found guilty of 59 separate offences, including assault and theft, and was jailed twice, in fact, for contempt of court. He has even admitted that illegal activity is at the heart of the way he does business. Channelling ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, Mr Setka told Sky News last week, 'We get fantastic pay rises and good conditions for our members because we fight it outside the law.'

Even the Leader of the Opposition's own colleagues know how wrong and self-serving his continued support for the CFMMEU is. Labor's hero, former Prime Minister and ACTU boss, Bob Hawke, has called the construction union's behaviour appalling and said that he would not tolerate it. He told The Australian in 2016, 'I would throw them out,' just as he himself threw out its predecessor, the Builders Labourers Federation. Oh, for a Labor leader with some backbone today! Even Kevin Rudd has called for the CFMMEU to be expelled from affiliation with Labor, and for the influence of trade union factions in the party to be reduced. Even Peter Beattie said last week that he would refuse CFMMEU donations if he were the leader.

Yet there this Leader of the Opposition is, telling CFMMEU members at the Oaky Creek north mine site, where threats, including threats to rape children, and intimidation had been rife, 'The privilege for us today is to be in your company.' There he is, defending the CFMMEU day in, day out, just like his job depended on it. That's because it does—with $11 million in donations paid to Labor since 2001 and the factional support of its many active members, this Leader of the Opposition is owned lock, stock and barrel by the CFMMEU. The most sickening part of all of this is the fact that the Leader of the Opposition peddles his divisive, dishonest and exploitive envy mongering under the banner of a fair go. It's a cynical and nauseating distortion of what we all believe is at the heart of our uniquely Australian egalitarian way of life.

Where is the Leader of the Opposition's fair go when he is slugging senior Australians, who have worked and saved their whole lives, with a new multibillion-dollar retiree tax? Where is the fair go for 2.6 million Australians with APRA regulated superannuation accounts? What clever excuse is he going to give them when it comes time to explain why he has pillaged $3.75 billion from their hard earned savings? Where's the fair go for the millions of Australians whose jobs will be put at risk by the insatiable hunger of this Leader of the Opposition for more and more tax and his desire for the keys to the Lodge?

Even if what passes for a moderate version of Labor's tax plan were enacted, there would be 1.4 million Australian workers put at risk. There would still be thousands of businesses whose investment decisions had been undermined overnight. It would still mean many thousands of unemployed or underemployed Australians who would no longer have the opportunity to take up one of the new jobs created by our investment. What clever weasel words will the Leader of the Opposition use when it comes time to explain to our young people why there are no jobs for them? And where was the fair go for the workers at Clean Event or at Chiquita Mushrooms when their union secretary gave away their pay and conditions for his union's benefit?

Whether he's the secretary of the AWU or the Leader of the Opposition, he has only one guiding principle—that is, selling out the people he's meant to represent in the interest of his own. That's how he ran the AWU back then. It's how he's running the Labor Party today. It will be how he runs the country if he is ever allowed to occupy the Lodge. In the end, there is only one Australian the Leader of the Opposition is looking out for, and that is the Leader of the Opposition himself. There is only one standard to which he holds his words and his actions, and that is naked self-interest. His colleagues know that, those present here tonight know that, his supporters know that and the people of Australia know that. They have seen through the shifty Leader of the Opposition, and when they have the chance next year they will, as we should today, shun his empty politics of selfishness and division and support the Turnbull government's plan for a stronger, more prosperous Australia.

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