Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was Mr Goss—okay. Mr Goss, and the government that Mr Beattie was in, was clearly influenced by the federal Labor leader, also a Queenslander, as you would know. Here is the point: why is Mr Beattie so intransigent about trampling on people’s rights and ignoring people altogether? Let’s have a closer look at this. I understand that the minister’s second reading speech yesterday indicated that workers in all new councils will not actually be employed by the councils, because the councils are seen as trading organisations, and that means they can take advantage of the Howard government’s industrial relations system and Australian workplace agreements. Most councils have workplace agreements—they have negotiated very cooperatively with their staff and enjoy the freedoms which the Howard government’s industrial relations system provides—and a lot of them have gone on to individual contracts. But what is Mr Beattie proposing in this new legislation currently before the Queensland parliament? Statutory authorities set up in those council areas will employ people. Why is that? Because Senator Ludwig’s dad, ‘Big Bill’—the union heavy, the union boss of Queensland—went soft on Mr Beattie. His members know, particularly in the western shires, that amalgamations mean their jobs. What did the union say about it? Nothing. The union was bought off by this proposal to have the statutory authorities employ the workforces, so that they could not be part of the Howard government’s flexible industrial relations system. One would think that that is the underlying reason for all of this.

Mr Acting Deputy President, you will not believe this—I do not believe it, but I am told on good authority and happen to know that it is a fact. There are SES workers in Yepoon, a seaside suburb outside Rockhampton—a very go-ahead area, a very aggressive area, chaired by a very good chairman of the shire, even though, I dare say, he is a member of the Labor Party; he is another Bill Ludwig, but not ‘Big Bill’; this one is very distantly related, I think; Mayor Ludwig is not a bad fellow and he runs a good council—and they are having a rally in Yepoon on Sunday. They expect about 5,000 people at the rally. Safety would require that you put up barricades to make sure that the rally can occur without any prospect of injury for those taking part, and some 5,000 people are expected there. But, Mr Acting Deputy President, do you know what has happened in Queensland? Mr Beattie has told the SES workers that if they lift one barricade, if they take one step, they are sacked.