Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science representing the Minister for Employment. Will the minister outline to the House the government's commitment to ensure that employer and employee organisations always act in the best interests of their members? What steps are the government taking to end systematic corruption and are there any obstacles to cleaning up union governance for the benefit of workers and the economy?

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

I thank the member for Forde for his question. He, like me and every member on this side of the House, takes very seriously the cleaning up of the workplaces of Australia, the cleaning up of unions and creating fair workplaces. In contrast, the other side of the House are blocking the parliament from doing just that. We were elected on a platform of reinstituting the Australian Building and Construction Commission and creating the Registered Organisations Commission.

Mr Champion interjecting—

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

The member for Wakefield will leave under 94(a).

The member for Wakefi el d then left the chamber.

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

This was done before the election. We won the election and we have a mandate to do both of those things. We want to support honest union bosses and remove the bad apples from the union bosses' barrel who give unions a bad name. Now what is wrong with that? What is wrong with trying to remove from the barrel of bad apples those union bosses who give good union bosses a bad name? There are very good unions and there are good union bosses, and their reputation should not be stained by the dodgy practices of union bosses who are not doing the right thing.

We want to end the practice of secret payments, unlawful payments and secret commissions to trade union slush funds and their associated entities. We want to end the practice that allowed, for example, the cleaners who worked for Cleanevent having their penalty rates traded away in exchange for cash payments and lists to the union which were then used for membership purposes within the ALP—one of the greatest industrial scandals in Australia's recent history, carried on by the AWU.

Labor, by contrast, have a very weak policy in this area. Not only are they opposing the Australian Building and Construction Commission; they are also opposing the Registered Organisations Commission. They were lukewarm in their support of the royal commission and in fact have not supported the recommendations that the royal commission handed down. Their policy in this area includes tougher sanctions for the auditor than it does for the dodgy union boss. In fact, the only criminal sanction included in the Labor Party's new policy in this area is on the auditor, not the dodgy union boss. The auditor gets a criminal sanction. The auditor can go to prison. The dodgy union boss is allowed to escape unscathed. They may have a civil penalty but certainly not a criminal penalty.

The only side of the House that is serious about cleaning up the union movement through the Registered Organisations Commission is this side of the House. While the economy is in transition, we need safe and fair workplaces. We need unions that are working for the workers' interests, not for their own interests. If you want a clean and fair workplace then you need to vote for the coalition.