Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Training representing the Minister for Employment. Will the minister update the House on the benefits to growth in jobs of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement? How has the news of these benefits been received by the union movement?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. He asked me how the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement has been received by the union movement. I am disappointed to have to tell him that it is not dissimilar to the way that the union movement has always reacted to changing our economy, to expanding, to bringing more changes to our arrangements that grow our economy, that increase exports, that give wealth to the nation by trading—

Mr Snowdon interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind the member for Lingiari he is warned.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

with other nations, and that is with xenophobia and racism. It is a similar to the way they reacted to the White Australia Policy when it was abolished in the 1960s or when they reacted to Chinese immigration to Australia to help grow our economy in the 1890s and in the early part of Federation when they insisted the White Australia Policy—

Ms Butler interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith is warned.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

be included in our new nation. The problem with the CFMEU and the union movement is they do not change their spots, and one would not expect it of a discredited organisation like the CFMEU. But what does surprise me is that they have been allowed to take over the Leader of the Opposition's response to the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, because initially Labor used to be in favour of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement. Labor luminaries across the country from Bob Hawke to Bob Carr are in favour of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, and the Leader of the Opposition used to speak in favour of it. But what changed? The CFMEU yanked the chain.

Pat Conroy (Charlton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The point of order is on relevance. The question was about the trade union reaction not the Labor Party's reaction.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a frivolous point of order. The minister is in order.

Government members interjecting—

Members on my right.

Ms Claydon interjecting—

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, the member for Newcastle has just highlighted the exact problem we face in this country today, and that is that the CFMEU and the Labor Party are one and the same. There was a time when the Labor Party supported free trade. They were trying to settle free trade agreements with China, but the CFMEU yanked the chain. They brought the Leader of the Opposition back into the tent and they said 'Listen, there are no more donations. There are no more membership lists. There's no more stacking of the Victorian ALP. You'll do as you're told, and you'll oppose the China free trade agreement.' And because the Leader of the Opposition is so weak, so unfit to be Prime Minister of Australia, he danced to the tune of the inheritor of the BLF, the Builders Labourers Federation—that is, the CFMEU's antecedent was the BLF. What we see today is the CFMEU writing the policies of the Labor Party on free trade, on exports, on trying to make our country a better place with more growth and more jobs. What the Labor Party needs to do is listen to people like Bob Hawke—even Daniel Andrews from the Socialist Left supports the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement; Jay Weatherill, another socialist, from my own state supports the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement—and get on board with Australian jobs and growing the economy.