John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

No, this was compulsory unionism under the Dunstan government. So, anyway, they took the price of a ticket out of my wages and ironically, next shed, they made me the union rep! This bloke came up to me and said, 'I haven't got a ticket; will you get me one?' I said, 'I wouldn't know where to get them, mate; get your own.' That was my 12 months in the Australian Workers Union. I saw how the union movement worked then: it was hold a gun at your head or leave the shearing shed—as simple as that. If you did not join the union, you had to leave your job. It was a terrible situation. Of course, the then Labor Premier Don Dunstan, now the late Don Dunstan—