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

No, it's not. I was talking about the party, not an individual. Imagine if I came into this place and got all my donors and said, 'Righto, let's write laws according to what the donors want.' What do you think people in my electorate would think, or the attendants in this place would think, or whatever? They'd think: 'That doesn't sound right. You can't write laws for your donors.' That's what the Labor Party does every day of the week—and not just here in the federal parliament but in the state parliaments as well, whether it's abolishing the ABCC or whether it's changes to super funds that their union mates, like Wayne Swan, run. The AUKUS deal is not even off limits when it comes to governing for unions.

Here we have a minister, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations—has he ever in his life employed one person and actually paid their wages? I'm talking about not all his ministerial staff or the people in his office—the taxpayer pays their wages—but just one person. When I look at his history, basically his history is that he finished uni and was then a political staffer and a union organiser. He was a company director for 12 months before he resigned to run for a state seat and then joined the union. That's the minister in charge. He's never employed anyone. He has no experience. Instead, he writes legislation for his union donors. That's what it's about.

The member for Longman, who spoke before me tonight, is spot on; he actually said the same thing. The member for Longman knows what it's like to employ people. He understands. He'd make a far better workplace relations minister than the Labor Party's minister for workplace relations. Minister Burke gets up in his second reading speech and talks about a better workplace for the gig worker, who currently has no minimum standards. To the member behind me here: have you—through you, Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough—had a gig worker come into your office and actually raise these issues with you?

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