Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

On top of that, there is tax relief for all Australians who are working hard, tax relief that the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party have sought to oppose, in this place. At the election they opposed it, seeking only to put more taxes and higher taxes on Australian workers, saying to them that they shouldn't keep more of what they earn. I have already, in my previous answer, referred to the actions we're taking to ensure stronger penalties for those who engage in wage theft. They've increased 10-fold under the legislation our government has put in place—the increased resources we've put into the Fair Work Ombudsman, the criminalisation of worker exploitation, for which laws will come forward from the Attorney-General, shortly, and the Minister for Industrial Relations.

It does beg the question. Australians know whose side we're on, when it comes to Australian workers, and their entitlements and their jobs and their earnings. They know where we stand. But where does the Labor Party stand? Firstly, we've got the Labor Party in this place opposing laws which will ensure unions cannot siphon off the earnings of workers' entitlement funds and just spread them willy-nilly to their other union mates. That's like having a union super fund paying the earnings of your superannuation to another union. That's against the law, and this should be against the law also. We also know that they oppose laws that will boot out serially offending union officials from breaking the law just like company directors were.

The Leader of the Opposition says he wants to get rid of John Setka from the union movement. We're only trying to help you here. There's a law here, you can vote for, to ensure that John Setka gets booted from the union movement, and the Leader of the Opposition turns his back on those laws and he turns his back on hardworking Australians.

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