Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to address the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill 2023. Can I start by being very clear that, quite simply, this legislation is another Albanese Labor government con job. It's a bill for union donors—nothing more than the member for Watson taking care of union donor mates. This isn't about closing loopholes, but it is a policy full of potholes. It's the Albanese Labor government's attempt to fool the Australian people by proposing to change the name of its signature industrial relations policy but not the policy itself. They stand in this place boasting about this fair work policy, but in reality there is nothing fair about it in its wording, intent or delivery. You may well call it the 'closing loopholes bill'—that's what they're calling it—but really it's about closing loopholes to union membership.

Just yesterday we saw the real motivation of the Labor Party when they failed to support Australian workers and voted against the Senate's recommendations for this bill. In a deliberate opposition and blocking of the passage of this bill, the Albanese Labor government voted not only against coalition senators but against senators from independent and minor parties in the Senate by refusing to agree to splitting the bill. If the government supported the bills, as we on this side of the House proposed, specific measures for first responders, employees of small businesses, victims of family and domestic violence and those affected by asbestos would have passed and been in place. But instead they continue, in yet another shocking example of this government's lack of transparency, to ignore feedback within the industry and businesses it'll affect. At a time when businesses are crying out for staff and a fair go, they're not listening.

The reality is that this government governs for unions. I believe the Labor Party are corrupt in the sense that they govern specifically for unions. Can you imagine if I came into this place or the coalition came in—

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