Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

The government is concerned about the proliferation of union slush funds, as are many union members and officials around Australia. The former Prime Minister, now a constituent of Senator Bernardi, admitted in 1995 that every union has a slush fund. Just in the last year, we have seen revelations about slush funds operated by the TWU, NUW, CEPU, CFMEU and the ETU. The fact of their existence and, more importantly, the reasons for their existence, have only been revealed years later by court proceedings or investigative journalism. I am pleased that some light will now be shone on the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association scandal as a result of the decision by the Chief Magistrate in Victoria.

It has taken over 20 years and cost careers of several people for some hope of transparency to finally emerge. It should be remembered that a former senior official of the AWU Ian Cambridge, now a member of the Fair Work Commission, wrote to the then Labor industrial relations minister in 1996 expressing grave concern about the operation of this slush fund and called for a royal commission. The former Labor Attorney-General Robert McClelland also expressed his very grave concern that the AWU affair highlighted serious shortcomings in the regulation of unions.

The government shares their concerns. The problem with union slush funds is that they are secretive and used for nefarious purposes. Whilst Labor did nothing to overcome this scourge, the coalition promised, and had endorsed by the Australian people, their proposal for a Registered Organisations Commission which has now been sabotaged in this place by the beneficiaries of those slush funds sitting opposite. (Time expired)