Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

There's no surprise about this. You always know that when the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations gets up and says that something is very modest, you can almost be assured that it's complete overreach. When he gets up and says things like he's consulted widely, you can almost be assured that he's under the direction of and mouthing solely the views of the union movement in whatever he happens to be talking about. So there are no surprises with this legislation, the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023. This legislation is signed, sealed and financed by the Australian union movement. Everything that is in this legislation is by order of the people who fund the Labor Party, who pre-select the Labor Party and who choose who's pre-selected for the Labor Party.

The one problem the Labor Party have is they are a one-dimensional party. Everyone on that side of politics is a union operative or has been a union operative. That's good. Unions are an important part of any society and any community. In the history of Australia, the unions have been a very important part of Australia's evolution and a very important part of our economy. But, that being said, they're not the be-all and end-all. Because of the one-dimensional structure of the Australian Labor Party, they are solely owned, financed and funded by the Australian union movement, and that's to their great detriment. The world has moved on from the days of capital versus labour, from the days where there were those two competing influences. Every employer and every business in this country knows their greatest asset is their staff, and people look after their staff. They want to look after their staff. We have an award movement, an award system, here that makes sure there are minimum rates of pay and minimum rates of things that happen within the workplace so people aren't abused or exploited. We know that.

Those over there will go: 'Of course you're going to say this. You're never going to agree to this.' As the previous minister just said, he's disappointed in this and he's disappointed in the views of others. Well, don't take my view. I'm going to read out the opinions of some people who aren't in this chamber and who may have some interesting insights into this. Tania Constable, the CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia—let's look at the Minerals Council of Australia. They're looking after our mining industry. What do they do? Just a few minor things, like have hundreds of billions of dollars of the exports of this nation. That's what they represent. They represent the coal workers, the gas workers and the mining industries of this country. What's their spokesperson said? It's not me; it's not the bad Liberal and National parties. This is from the CEO of the Minerals Council of Australia: 'This is jeopardising the nation's future.' It's not me. This is Tania Constable representing the Minerals Council of Australia. She goes on:

Let's not sugarcoat it. These industrial relations changes are some of the most extreme interventionist workplace changes that have ever been proposed in Australia.

That's not me. That is the person who is representing all the mineral miners and those people in this country.

Let's go on. I've got another one. It's from the CEO of the Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott:

This will only add confusion and costs, while limiting the opportunities for people to get jobs with the flexibility they need.

That's not me. That's not from this side of the politics—those over there think we're all these horrible people—that's the Business Council of Australia. She represents the people who employ everyone. She represents the people who provide jobs in this country. Adding confusion and adding cost—that's all we need. Let's add a bit of cost to everything. Let's add confusion and cost to things right now, when we have a cost-of-living crisis. Let's add costs and confusion to the people who are generating jobs for people in Australia.

Then we have this from Andrew McKellar, CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It's quite clever, the way the bill is called closing loopholes; that sounds like a good idea. This is what Andrew McKellar from the ACCI said:

The only loophole this bad legislation is looking to close is that of plummeting union membership.

That's the loophole that he sees. That's the view of the ACCI. Does that surprise us? No, because this is not actually motivated for the good of Australian workers and business. This is motivated to increase union membership because the unions fund every single person who sits on that side of the chamber. That's what this is about. It's nothing more complicated than that. Don't disguise it by saying this is good for workers and good for pay. This is only designed to get increased union membership across this country. They don't care if that makes things more expensive for business. They don't care if that makes the cost of living worse in this country or even makes unemployment high in this country. All they are concerned about is the percentage of union membership in this country. This legislation has one sole purpose, and that is to increase union membership in this country. That's it.

I'll go on and I'll give you some more quotes. The Master Builders Association says:

… the worst fears of the building community have been realised with the introduction of a radical omnibus industrial relations Bill that takes the sledgehammer to tradies right across the country.

Why are they taking a sledgehammer to tradies? I'll tell you why they're taking a sledgehammer to tradies. The Labor Party would like to think they represent all the tradies out there—the plumbers, the electricians and all those workers in high-vis. Well, they don't. The vast majority of tradies don't belong to a union. They're small-business people who employ people, or they're tradies who work for a small-business operator. That's what they are. The Labor Party don't like them, because they're not unionised. So that's the person who represents the tradies in this country.

Let's move on. Matthew Addison, from the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia, said these changes would require every business to dedicate more resources, more time and more money to trying to understand and implement onerous new obligations. That's not me saying this; it's the person who represents small business across this country. Of course, those opposite don't like small business either. Small business doesn't fund the Labor Party. The unions don't like small business, because they're not members of a union, either. Again, this is not about the people who are in small business. It's not even about people who work for small business. It's about trying to get everyone to have a union membership, and that's it.

The reason why people are quite concerned about this legislation—not just us but all the people I've just mentioned—is that it is unfortunately going to make Australia a less competitive country. It's going to make us a less productive country and a less prosperous country. Our standard of living, productivity and all these things will fall because of this legislation. With all due respect to the minister, he's doing his job. This minister is paid for by the union movement. He's the Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations, so his stakeholder consultation process is to speak to as many unions as he can. The more unions he speaks to, the wider his consultation; that's how he would measure that. So congratulations to him. He's certainly representing the movement that he works for and looks after. He's certainly paying the piper, but this will have many damaging and long-term consequences for our country.

I want to stay for a moment and re-emphasise the biggest concern I have about this legislation. Besides the loss of productivity, the loss of efficiency and this being about higher union membership, the thing about this legislation that is going to really hurt and cause the biggest consequence is that it won't be good for employment and the flexibility of the workplace. The cost of people in the workplace is going to make employers very nervous. There will be certain people they would've employed that they won't employ. Very concerningly, it's going to put up the cost of living. That's the one true thing that the minister said. The minister himself said that, yes, this legislation will increase the cost of food and the cost of transport. He admitted that. He said it's going to increase the cost of living. This is terrible legislation, consulted on solely with the union movement.

I'll finished by reiterating that this is disappointing but not surprising. The Labor Party have been speaking about this for a long time, over a decade, nearly two decades. They are a one-dimensional party. The unions have far too much control over the Labor Party and the Labor MPs. Labor MPs, as we know, are preselected, funded and sponsored by the unions, and many of them have previously been union delegates. This legislation is the result of a one-dimensional party. It is solely about increasing union membership in this country. It's going to make us a less productive and less competitive country with a higher cost of living, and I think it's going to be a very sad day when this legislation passes through this parliament.

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