Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald has asked what the penalty is. The penalty is jail, if you are corruptly operating within a business organisation, a union or any other establishment in this country. There are criminal laws to deal with that. But what the coalition want to do is to try to impose corporate laws on the trade union movement and it has been quite clearly demonstrated by submissions to the legislation inquiry that it is not appropriate, not effective and should not happen.

We hear from Senator Abetz that there is dissembling by former trade union officials. The only one who is dissembling is Senator Abetz in his contribution because he did not argue that, if someone is found taking illegal actions in the trade union movement, they should be dealt with through the laws that are being proposed here. The reality is that the Labor Party, the coalition, the Greens, the Independents and the Nationals would argue that, if someone breaks the law, if there is criminal activity, that criminal activity should be taken to where it can be dealt with, the courts of this land, and you could end up in jail. That is the bottom line. This argument that union officials should be treated the same—