House debates

Monday, 21 November 2022

Bills

Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023, Appropriation Bill (No. 2) 2022-2023, Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 1) 2022-2023; Second Reading

5:38 pm

Photo of David ColemanDavid Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, indeed. The shadow minister says it's the bosses. This is about the union movement. The problem the union movement has is that the private sector has moved away in dramatic numbers from the union movement. It's not so bad for the unions in the public sector, but in the private sector union membership is down to less than 10 per cent. There are more left-handers in the private sector today than there are union members. I can say that; I'm a left-hander, with lived experience as a left-hander. There are more of us left-handers than there are union members. If you're in the union movement, that's a big problem. That's an existential threat. You need to address that by roping more and more businesses in the private sector into the union movement. It's not about wages. It is about bolstering the position of the union movement.

Now, I have just 50 seconds to go, but I want to talk quickly about one local issue. Oatley FC and Renown United play at a park called Renown Park. It is the absolute bedrock of our community. More than 1,000 kids play there every Saturday. There's $550,000 in the budget to fix the park, because its condition is appalling. This government still has not provided clarity to those 1,000 players at Renown and Oatley FC. It is shameful. It needs to be resolved. They are great people at Oatley and Renown United. This government must release that funding to allow that project to happen. That's just one example of the many, many problematic aspects of this budget. It's not a good budget for Australia. It means greater debt, it'll lead to more taxes, and it's the wrong budget for this country.

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