Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I will continue my remarks on the fair work amendment or 'union power' or 'ALP donations' bill 2022. That's what this bill in fact should be called because that's what it in fact represents—and those opposite, a collection of trade unionists, staffers and apparatchiks, know it too. I said in my remarks earlier that I had been a trade union member for 21 years, which was more than most of those in the chairs opposite could even admit themselves. I'd been a member of the Australian Journalists Association. Then it became the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, and I was a member of that union. I do understand the importance of balance within the union movement. But I also understand what this bill is going to do to small business. Indeed, we all know that he, or perhaps she, who pays the piper calls the tune. What worries me about this bill is that those who are paying the piper are the unions, and the piper in this case is the member for Watson, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. You can see him with his pipe. He will be leading our small businesses over the cliff.

There are 2.4 million businesses in Australia, and the majority of them, 98 per cent, are small or medium-sized enterprises. I can remember being a small business owner. Not many of those opposite can claim that feat. They haven't run a small business. They've run picket lines.

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