Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Union opposition to the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is the most recent example of unions not doing what is best for their members whereby they sacrifice their long-term economic interests on the altar of short-term grubby politics.

Unions like the CFMEU, United Voice, SDA and MUA seem to be more about taking money from some of the lowest-paid workers in our nation and giving it to a few well-paid executive members, funding Labor and the Greens, or using it for purely political campaigns that are not in the best interests of their memberships.

The latest campaign, where voters have been told that their coalition MP failed to attend a public forum on ChAFTA, despite that MP declining the invitation prior to the event, is disingenuous and pathetic. And yet, this is what we have come to expect from the unions—false and defamatory smear campaigns. The hardworking and honest members of the ACTU and others deserve better representation than this.

My electorate of Canning has fewer white collar workers than the national average but a high number of people making their living in a trade. Trade-like occupations make up more than 40 per cent of the workforce, with employment in manufacturing at 2.9 per cent—well above the national average of 0.7 per cent. I want what is best for Canning workers: to deliver the public policy that creates jobs and a better standard of living—and that is what I will strive to deliver—in spite of militant unionism. That is what the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement will do for Australia and Canning more broadly.