Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. I do appreciate that coverage. I shake in my boots when Senator Edwards from South Australia attacks me. But you see, I know the value of dirt under the fingernails. I know the value of leaving school and thinking, 'What am I doing to do with myself, because I do not want to go to university?'

I also understand the value of putting up your life savings. I think I had about $1,200 in the bank when my dad said to me, 'If you want to buy a truck, mate, you're using your own money.' I understand signing up to a loan and thinking, 'Now I've got pay it off.' I also understand the value of putting in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. I also understand feeling that if I did not have—like hundreds of thousands of other Australian workers have—the safety net of union membership behind me should I need it, what the heck would I do? How would I service my loans if I were, one day, unfairly treated, if the company I worked for decided that they did not need me, through no fault of my own? I worked for one of the largest transport companies in Australia, TNT. At the time, we were the Ansett division, Ansett Transport Industries, so I came through the Ansett sector. They were a very good company until things started going bad. My union membership came in very, very handy, and I am proud to have had that. I am also proud—and I will get to the bill but I just want to let some of those boofheads over there understand that they are not the gatekeepers to all intelligence, let alone good business practice—