Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll be speaking in support of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Withdrawal from Amalgamation) Bill 2024. Talking about payments to the ALP instead of the union may have been a Freudian slip by the member for Kennedy, because what we're seeing, and what we're seeing with this piece of legislation, is actually who is controlling the ALP—who is directing them and who has directed them on this issue. In 2020 the coalition passed this exact legislation. The member for Kennedy might call it 'payments to the ALP', but unfortunately they have to go via the unions before they go directly to the ALP. They would like them to go direct to the ALP—from the worker to the ALP—but unfortunately they're using the union as the middleman.

The CFMEU gave them $4.3 million this financial year, and what did it buy them? It bought them the opposition to this legislation in 2020 that allowed amalgamated unions to demerge if they felt it was in their best interests. This was to ensure that the representatives and their members were represented. But in February Labor didn't care about that. They reversed this. Why? Because these were the demands of John Setka and the CFMEU and because the ALP cares more about its union bosses than it does about their workers and their best interests.

What is today really about? Today is an admission from Minister Burke and it's an admission from the Albanese Labor government that they have failed. Today is recognition that the government has failed workers. They've failed the largely feminised industries that the member for Kennedy was talking about—the textile workers union—and they've failed the law-abiding unions. They've failed the good unions, and there are good unions in this country.

This legislation is being brought forward by Labor despite the Albanese government voting against very similar legislation in February. Why did this government vote against this legislation in February? What we've seen from the first two years of the Labor government is that they aren't about people power and they aren't about workers. They're about union power. 'Union power, union power, union power'—this is the chant we hear at every state Labor conference. We don't hear about workers, people, families or individuals. It's about institutionalised unions. This is the motto of the Labor government and its union masters.

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