Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. Would the Treasurer inform the House of the results of today’s consumer sentiment surveys? What are the threats posed by a return to a centralised industrial relations system? Is the Treasurer aware of any new plans to increase union power?

Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Stirling. I can inform him that, although the Westpac index showed a modest fall in consumer sentiment in June, that was from the highest level ever recorded. The consumer sentiment index is still 17 per cent higher than at the same time last year, which is good news for consumers. In addition, the Sensis consumer sentiment report for the month of June showed that consumer confidence was at a net balance of 59 points—almost 20 points higher than at the same time last year. So consumers are confident, employment is strong, the economy is growing and more Australians are in work than ever before. But all of that could be at risk if we have a puppet government elected to do the bidding of the ACTU, by changing industrial relations in this country, setting off unsustainable wage demands and reintroducing unfair dismissal laws. This is a very real threat to the Australian economy. The Australian economy is finely tuned, finally calibrated—and, if the ACTU gets itself back in the driving seat of this formula 1 car, it will be heading to a crash as sure as night follows day.

I have come into possession of the ACTU’s manual on how it intends to get itself back in the driving seat of the Australian economy by installing a puppet Labor leadership on its behalf. As the Prime Minister said, this is an ACTU manual on how to engage in dirty tricks—a manual which has been endorsed by none other than the Leader of the Opposition. Get a load of this. The ACTU says that union leaders have to make phone calls as follows:

In the first call, the aim is to educate, inform and derive a profile of the member which can be used to tailor future calls. The follow-up call will use this information to raise issues that we know will concern the member.

I bet you know how to concern the member when you make the follow-up call! The manual then encourages Labor apparatchiks and unionists to penetrate and use community groups for this campaign. The ACTU recommends entering homes with churches and faith groups so that they can use those groups for the industrial campaign. I would warn Australians of this: the next time you hear your doorbell ring on a Saturday morning, do not answer the door, because it could well be elder Dean Mighell of the church of latter day unionists who has come around to tell you about your rights at work.

But it is not only about church groups and community groups; get a load of this: Sharan Burrow was on radio 3AW this morning saying, ‘We’re going to work in sporting areas and volunteer organisations like Meals on Wheels.’ So the ACTU is now going to penetrate Meals on Wheels so that it can get inside people’s houses and advise them on how to vote. So you will hear the doorbell ring and then: ‘Sharan Burrow, Meals on Wheels, here. I’d just like to come in and talk to you about the ACTU campaign.’ That the ACTU would try to penetrate these groups to get inside people’s homes to run its agenda shows not only complete and utter disrespect for churches and community groups but also a threatening attitude to Australians in their homes.

A former Prime Minister claimed on Lateline not so long ago that he had to get the ACTU in a headlock. With modern Labor, it is the ACTU that has the headlock—it has a headlock on Kevin Rudd, the Leader of the Opposition. He is the frontman that is being put up by people who are much more aggressive and much more threatening than him because they want a patsy in the Lodge to run their agenda. The decent people of Australia do not deserve to be treated like this and they do not deserve this deceitful campaign from the ACTU.