Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What Senator Marshall says is a bit rich—much as I admire the gentleman. I sat here and listened to Senator Marshall pretend to us that in mid-September of this year the world was perfect and all of a sudden it fell in a hole. Senator Marshall, before you go, in relation to Holden I have to say to you that when I was in the United States recently I heard an interview with an executive of General Motors in Detroit. When asked about the Australian car manufacturing industry he said, 'But it stopped years ago! We haven't been manufacturing vehicles in Australia for years, have we?' Speaking about General Motors and speaking about Detroit, colleagues would be interested to know that it was only in July 2013 that the city of Detroit became the largest city in the history of the United States to file for chapter 9 bankruptcy protection.

In the few moments that are available to me I would like to say that I did meet with the AMWU representatives in Perth recently. They were pleading the case for my support for assistance in the shipbuilding industry in Western Australia. Of course we have the opportunity of an even more burgeoning shipbuilding industry. In my conversation with them I spoke about quality. The first thing they tried to tell me was that the quality of manufacturing in Korea, Singapore and China was so bad that all they did was to repair their work. Having seen ships recently off the production line in China, I was able to assure the representatives that the design work was supervised by Norwegians and the Dutch and shipyards were overseen by Koreans. The quality of that work was fantastic.

I did ask them: 'Could you come to the table with an undertaking for a specific project that, in the event that your company could win a project you would hold yourselves to any contractual labour agreement for the purpose and for the length of that contract?' They could not. I asked them, 'What other union might be involved?' They said, 'The CFMEU.' I asked, 'Could the CFMEU come forward with a guarantee of no change of price?' Of course the answer was: no, they could not.

In the few moments available to me I would like to reflect on how this opposition, when in government, failed Australians—and particularly failed Australian workers. We know the disparity in the workforce in Australia—about 15 per cent of workers in the non-government sector are members of unions, whereas closer to 90 per cent of members and senators on the Labor side, I believe, are members of unions. Those people sitting opposite us have an awesome burden once they come into the parliament—that is, to use their influence on union members in workforces to see the reality of circumstances.

Let me tell you about someone from 2004—it is a name known to us all: now Leader of the Opposition Mr Bill Shorten. He led SPC Ardmona workers on a six-day strike in the middle of the harvesting season, winning them an extra eight days of so-called leisure time. He said at that time how pleased he was that he had won this agreement from SPC Ardmona for a 13.5 per cent improvement in salary conditions, including an extra eight days. Here we are today, in 2014, wondering why SPC Ardmona is having so much difficulty in surviving. There are so many Labor members and senators who could have, and should have, used their influence in the workplaces from which they have come to try and get reasonable conditions and reasonable labour costs. Regrettably, we have seen the outcome today: Senator Carr's ridiculous—I say 'ridiculous'!—notice of motion.