Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

May I say at the outset that I am a very proud member of United Voice. Prior to coming into the Senate and, prior to being a proud senator for the state of Western Australia, I was an elected official of that union both at a state level and, in the latter part of my career with United Voice, as a national official. I can assure the Senate that I took my responsibilities as an elected official very, very seriously. I can vouch for many members of trade unions who take on elected positions that they take their responsibilities very seriously.

Let me also be very clear, because you will not hear it from those opposite, and I want to make this point at the very beginning of my comments today on the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014, make no mistake: the Labor Party has no tolerance for corruption by union officials or officers of employer bodies. We have said that over and over again. Not only have we said it but, when in government, we demonstrated that we were very serious about living up to that commitment.

When we had the Senate inquiry into this bill, before it was amended, all of the union officials who appeared before us made that same statement during the inquiry. Labor supports tough penalties for those who break the law. Not only do we support it but we have demonstrated it. We have demonstrated that appropriate regulation for registered organisations is a good and proper thing, including a properly empowered regulator and consequences for those who do not follow the rules. We support that.

Labor, both in government and in opposition, continues to be committed to ensuring financial accountability of unions and employer organisations. That is why, when we were in government in 2012, we put forward laws to toughen the existing financial transparency and disclosures by registered organisations.

What are those laws about, because you will not hear it from that chaotic, dysfunctional Abbott government opposite? You will just hear spin and mistruths. Currently, under Labor's legislation, the regulation of trade unions in Australia has never been stronger. Accountability has never been higher. The powers of the Fair Work Commission to investigate and prosecute for breaches have never been broader. And, as we heard from Senator Cameron this morning, Labor tripled the penalties, which means they have never been tougher.

Before I became a senator, when I worked as an elected official for United Voice, these laws impacted on United Voice. We had to get ourselves trained and had to change the way we did a whole range of things in order to comply with these laws. So I have direct firsthand experience, unlike anyone over there on the government side, that these laws work. They put in place absolute transparency and if that is not demonstrated then there are tougher laws. I lived under this legislation; I have direct experience of how tough it is.

We hear those opposite talk about the HSU matters. Let me say what the act already does. Registered organisations already prohibit money from being used to favour particular candidates in internal elections or campaigns. That has been a law for a very long time, but of course you will not hear that from the government because they want to put spin around it. Whenever the government are in trouble in this place, they come in here during question time and what do we hear with their dorothy dixers? We hear demonising of trade unions because they hate the way trade unions can talk to their members and can listen to their members' concerns about the harsh, cruel Abbott government. They hate that. Anything the Abbott government can do to demonise trade unions, to make life tough for trade unions, even at the expense of their business mates, they will do. Make no mistake. That is all spin on the other side.

We have in the act a law which says that you cannot use members' money to favour particular candidates in eternal elections or campaigns. The registered organisations act already allows for criminal proceedings being initiated where funds are stolen or are obtained by fraud. The registered organisations act already ensures the Fair Work Commission can share information with the police as appropriate, and the registered organisations act already provides for statutory civil penalties where a party knowingly or recklessly contravenes an order or direction made by the Federal Court or the Fair Work Commission under the registered organisations act or the Fair Work Act. Those penalties are already there and that toughness is already there, but of course you will not hear that from the Abbott government, because the bill before the Senate today is not about toughness and transparency; it is about making life tougher for trade unions. In doing that with their right-wing, Tea Party ideology, they have also hooked in their business mates. Their business mates are not happy either.

Under the Fair Work Act officers of registered organisations already have fiduciary duties akin to those for directors under the Corporations Law. We already have that. Make no mistake: government senators will try to stand in this place today and say that we somehow do not, but we do. Those are the facts. The act already requires officers to disclose their personal interests. The act already asks officers to disclose when payments are made to related parties. And the act already requires officers to exercise care and diligence, to act with good faith and not improperly use their position for political advantage. It is not surprising therefore that Labor senators should question the motives of the Abbott government and their reasons for introducing these reforms before the Senate today.

Labor will oppose the bill before the Senate today—and sensible senators will also oppose it—because it just goes too far. It demonstrates the ideology of the Abbott government: its right-wing, Tea Party agenda. The bill also highlights the chaotic and divisive nature of the government. It shows that it is not prepared to trust anyone. It just furthers the mistrust that community members have in the government. The dysfunction of the government is well and truly on display. The Abbott government has demonstrated time and time again that it does not like trade unions. And it does not much like Australian workers. It demonises shipbuilders, claiming—as the government did prior to Christmas—that you would not trust them to build a canoe. What a disgraceful statement that was and, rightfully, that minister has been thrown onto the backbench. Fancy pretending to be a government that supports Australian workers and making that claim, which will remain on the Hansard forever and a day in this place—saying to those shipbuilders: 'I wouldn't trust you to build a canoe.' No wonder the Abbott government's popularity and the Prime Minister's popularity are dropping in the polls, when they can so flippantly make that type of comment.

The government's agenda is to make life harder for workers and their representatives in whichever way they can. A demonstration of that is to point to this unnecessary bill, which Labor will not support. When in government we set very high benchmarks for trade unions and registered organisations. Let me talk for a moment about the registered organisations. If you listen to the Abbott government, you would think it is all about unions. You will not hear government senators talk very often about employer organisations. You will just hear them trying to demonise trade unions in this country. When they talk about ordinary Australians, it is almost as if they are drawing a distinction between ordinary Australians who are members of trade unions and another group of ordinary Australians who look upon trade unions as somehow evil or with horns growing out of their head. That is the sort of message you will get from the Abbott government.

Let me talk about who the government is seeking to demonise. Trade unions and employer groups both rely on volunteers. During the Senate inquiry, we heard evidence from employer groups and trade unions about their volunteers. What these two organisations have in common—trade unions and employers—is that, without volunteers, those organisations will simply cease to exist. When you look at United Voice, my trade union—and it is not much different to all the other trade unions in Australia in terms of the way it has been set up—you will see that most of the office bearers are volunteers, as they are in other unions, but you will not hear that from those opposite. We heard evidence from employer groups. I will certainly stand corrected on the record. I think it was AiG who told us that they rely on vast numbers of volunteers. Possibly 80 per cent of the people who run that organisation on behalf of small businesses in this country are volunteers.

The legislation that is before us today seeks to impose great barriers on volunteers. We heard employer groups during the Senate inquiry tell us that it would be very hard for them to attract volunteers when they would have to sit down and go through all of the requirements that volunteers have to undertake. I am not stepping back from the tough legislation that Labor put in place. But this legislation that the Abbott government has put in place that seeks to attack trade unions at the expense of their business mates will impose much tougher penalties and much greater responsibility in terms of disclosing transparency and so on.

As I go around the state of Western Australia I see that there are chambers of commerce in our small country towns which usually consist of one or two or three volunteers. Make no mistake, the Abbott government is seeking to penalise those small country employer associations by imposing much greater red tape. Of course, you will hear from the National Party senators today that that is a good thing. So I say to those out in the bush, to those employer associations in the small rural towns in Western Australia, it is the National Party, which actually does not represent the bush anymore, which has imposed this much greater level of responsibility on your organisation.

What we know about volunteers in our community, whether they are in the metropolitan area or the country, is that they usually volunteer to do other things. They might be volunteering to be an official and take up an official position on a trade union or on their local employer association, but those people will be active in the playgroups, in their football clubs, in their netball clubs and in a whole range of other areas. These are the ordinary Australians that the Abbott government is seeking to impose much greater responsibility on.

This morning in this place on another bill I heard Senator Brandis say that the Abbott government was absolutely determined to reduce red tape, green tape and beige tape, a new colour of tape that we heard about from Senator Brandis today. Perhaps Senator Cormann might tell us later on what beige tape is, but that has been added to the list. I am not sure who beige tape strangles—no doubt we will hear about that from the government—but there is a new colour of tape added. What Senator Brandis said is that Australian businesses yearn to be free of that red, green and beige tape. But the Abbott government, in pursuing this harsh, overburdensome legislation, is imposing greater red, green and beige tape. Perhaps it is just red and beige—I think I understand what green is. So it is attempting to impose red and beige tape on employer organisations.

We heard from another government senator who said that Australian businesses, employer organisations and unions did not want to be dragged into the mud. Yet what do we see from the Abbott government when it is in trouble, when its popularity rate is at the lowest level in our history? Every day in this place during question time, with its Dorothy Dixers, we see it demonising and dragging trade unions into the mud. We get the backbenchers asking Senator Abetz a question which seeks to drag a trade union into the mud.

These are just two very small examples where you cannot trust the Abbott government on anything it says. The mistrust the Australian people have of the Abbott government is at an all-time high, and ordinary Australians who are members of trade unions also mistrust the government. I can assure the Abbott government that the nurses, the cleaners, the teachers, the early childhood educators, the hospitality workers, the metal workers, the construction workers—ordinary Australians who turn up to vote—who volunteer for their trade unions in an elected capacity do not support this legislation.

Labor's legislation is still being bedded down. There has been no review or consultation of that legislation. Interestingly, in the time between when this bill was put forward and it finally got to this chamber to be debated, we had that great proclamation from Prime Minister Abbott Monday week ago. 'I'm going to listen,' he said. If he were really listening he would have gone back, looked at this Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill, looked at the evidence that we heard in our Senate inquiries and said, 'Hang on a bit. This is not supported by my employer mates, and it's not supported by trade unions.' Nobody gave evidence that they supported this current bill that is before us. Labor has said that is just weasel words from the Prime Minister. He has no intention of listening, because if he were really listening this bill would be taken back to the drawing board. In fact, if he were truly going to live up to his words that he was listening then this bill would be put on the scrap heap.

Monday must be the day the Prime Minister makes new proclamations because this Monday he promised good government. Now, I am not quite sure when good government is going to start. He did not give a time. Maybe it was Tuesday. But we are yet to see good government in this place. There is no good government. Quite frankly, what was he doing from September until this Monday, because we have not seen good government by his very own admission? Good government would not impose this ridiculous, right wing, Tea Party, antiunion legislation. It would not, because we have tough penalties in place. We have a judicial system which can prosecute people who are alleged to have undertaken criminal activity, which has a range of actions, and that is actually what has occurred in this place.

The government is not listening, the Prime Minister is not listening, and I think he is on his last legs. Mr Turnbull is still sniffing around, as is Ms Bishop. We have not yet seen good government in this place, and this bill will not be supported by Labor.