Ross Lightfoot (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

People on this side who have been listening to the debate this afternoon, notwithstanding the lack of enthusiasm that often comes from the other side, would be surprised at the lack of cogent argument that has come from the opposition, the Greens and the Democrats. The facts are that there have never been more student places in Australian educational history. They have never been better off. Senator Johnston said there are chronic skills shortages in the Labor Party. Of course there are. When you have such a small pool of people to choose from, other than the union movement, to augment the benches on the other side, you must be at a disadvantage.

It is true that the union movement, in which the ALP is a satrap, covers only, in rounded figures, 10 per cent—maybe a little more but certainly below 11 per cent—of the private sector. How can you pick the best people on that side when you have such a small gene pool, if I can put it that way, from which to choose? How can you then add the problems of further dilution by having a quota for females? This means you must have a certain number of females, whether they are better or not. Some are delightful and some are in fact intelligent women. Some are not as good as the people who could be chosen if they were chosen on merit rather than on their sex.

I know something about the union movement. I have been a member of the Australian Workers Union, the Plasterers Society, the police union, the actors union—which is now the media and actors alliance—the Waterside Workers Federation for a short period when I was 13 years old, and even the meatworkers union when I worked in an abattoir when I was 12. I know what the union movement is about. The union movement can only survive if it uses propaganda and untruths to try and entice people to join. It can only survive if it uses those things in order to stack branches and to convince people to join. That is what is being done today with this bill.