Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am a little disappointed to yet again be standing on my feet, fighting for fairness for Australian workers and Australian businesses. Senator Lines, when you talk about fairness, I congratulate you for stating the fact that you think we have actually got it right when the unions and the employer organisations both think that we have not quite got it right. That is definitely not running a union-bashing exercise. It is actually a policy setting that is just about a sweet spot when you are very much mired down in the complex and partisan space of industrial relations.

I will go to the consultation that the minister, whilst he was the shadow minister in opposition, undertook in developing this particular policy initiative. Indeed, Senator Lines knows all too well the level of consultation we have had on this particular piece of legislation since she and I have been chair and deputy chair on the Senate committee that has been charged numerous times as Labor has subverted the process of the Senate and sent legislation off to the references committee, simply to stall and to hear once again the bald-faced rhetoric of the ACTU and co trotted out.

I really do think it is pretty rich for those opposite to stand up and talk about the benefits of a strong trade union culture in this country and the strong governance within trade unions. While Senator Lines was doing the right thing while she was an organiser and a governing member of United Voice, we know the reality is that that is not always the case. Union members across this country have not always been able to have that confidence in the governance structures of their unions. And it is not just union members; it is anybody that is part of a registered organisation. A member of a registered organisation that has paid fees to somebody else to advocate on their behalf should have complete confidence that those people are using that money to fight for the things which they were employed to do.

I commend the minister for bringing this forward. As we know, it is about industrial matters. Registered organisations represent views, and, as in industrial relations, these are usually polarised views. Every time we bring this forward we have a similar debate. I am really disappointed that the Labor Party cannot actually see that we have found the sweet spot. So when they look at registered organisations, they say, 'This is a union-bashing exercise.' Actually, as of 17 October 2013 there were 112 registered organisations listed with the Fair Work Commission, of which 67 were employer organisations and 45 were employee organisations. If anybody is being bashed with this legislation, it is actually the employer organisations. So I think that is actually quite a fallacy.

We have heard government senators here today provide a litany of examples of governance structures within a variety of unions misusing the trust of honest working Australians. When opposition senators—and I assume Green senators will follow in trot—stand up and actually critique our government as being antiworker, I say it is nothing of the sort. It is this government—and this minister—that is actually the best friend that the Australian worker has ever had. We are focused on making sure that our economy is strong enough to provide more jobs. It is all very well having a strong trade union movement and very well having fabulous OH&S laws, but if you ain't got a job you can't be safe at work. So we are actually really keen on ensuring that our economy provides those opportunities for the hardworking Australian worker to get on, get a job, buy a home, provide for their family, travel and live a full and prosperous life. That is exactly what our government is on about. I am sick to death of opposition senators, and members in the other place, painting us as anything other than the best friends of the Australian— (Quorum formed)

I just wanted to quote from the minister's second reading speech where he makes it clear that the legislation before us today is actually in line with community expectations. The community expects that those in positions of governance, those advocating and working for others—whether they be employee or employer organisations—have a duty and a responsibility to treat that relationship as sacrosanct. We make no apology for treating employer and employee registered organisations the same.

Senator Lines talked about there being no consultation. I do not know how we could have any greater example of consultation in policy development than in this particular piece of work. In constructing the policy, the then shadow minister went out and spoke to a range of stakeholders, not just the usual suspects but the public, states and territories, the union movement and employer groups, to come up with a response that built on the work of the former government and on Shorten's work, hoping for a bipartisan response so that workers and employer organisations could have confidence that both sides of politics would treat that relationship between member and registered organisation as sacrosanct and would be prepared to stand up and ensure that illegal behaviour was not welcome in that relationship. During the consultation, suggestions were made on how to improve the policy. Do you know what this government did? It listened. It did not start listening on Monday; it listened when it received that feedback. This policy was updated and the legislation was amended. I commend the minister for having an open ear and fair heart when he approached this matter.

We had public comments and Senate inquiries. We also had the Labor Party in the last iteration saying, 'We cannot actually send it back to the legislation committee. We will send it off to the references committee,' in a highly unorthodox operation. I want to read some of the coalition dissenting report to the Senate for those senators who have not read the completely partisan work of the Education and Employment References Committee into this piece of legislation. It makes comments around the waste of resources and states that the opposition and their Green partners are determined to obstruct this government's fair plan for workers in Australia by sending this legislation off to another Senate inquiry even though weeks previously we had finished an inquiry into the legislation. The dissenting report says:

The Green Labor Alliance’s decision to re-refer this legislation appears politically motivated and diminishes the standing of the Senate committee process.

They are working hard for 'the man' but they are not working hard for the men and women who pay the dues of that man. They are working hard for the men and women who control their various preselections.

It must be preselection season for them to be up here spouting which union they are proud to be an organiser or member of instead of focusing on what the good people of Australia have sent us all here to do, which is to focus on them and not on how to get preselected. While we are trotting out our union credentials, I was a proud member—indeed, the president—of a student association and had to come here and advocate on their behalf. I absolutely have seen some fabulous volunteer paid union officials and I have also seen some terrible ones. I can remember a trip to Canada by some Melbourne uni student officials that was taken on student funds. You would not have even known they had gone when they went off on their little Whistler skiing holiday. So I think it is very, very important that we have some rigor in the system and that we make the whole system transparent and accountable.

The only people who have something to worry about are not Senator Lines, United Voice and those who are the good, decent representatives of the hardworking Australian people but those who are not. None of those opposite can stand here before us today and defend that kind of behaviour. It is a tragedy, because it diminishes the role of the trade union movement in our society. It diminishes the capacity of trade unions to advocate and play their role in our civil society. By not supporting a transparent and accountable system, building on the work of the previous government, they are only doing themselves and their union mates a disservice. We need to ensure that bribery, intimidation and shady financial practices have no place in modern industrial relations. That is all we are seeking to do. It is a tragedy that those opposite will not assist us in that effort.

When we look at the appropriateness of policy development—and I have spoken briefly on that—I get very, very tired of being told that we are bashing business. We have got the balance right in this. This is a fair policy. I really would encourage Labor and the Greens to support fairness in the workplace, treating employer and employee organisations similarly.

When we look at the actual legislation before us, we can see that it is a hefty document. It has been amended, and it has been amended appropriately according to recommendations by others. But there are some key questions that we need to answer. What oversight will there be of the commission? When we are worried about the commission acting inappropriately, that will come back to the parliament. The commission will be required to report to the Minister for Employment annually on its activity. That report will be tabled in parliament. Members and senators will have an opportunity to examine and critique that work. As is common with statutory office holders, the minister will be able to give directions of a general nature to the commissioner. They must be in writing and will also need to be tabled in parliament. This is about transparency. It is about accountability. It is about shining a light on industrial relations practice and ensuring we can have confidence but, more importantly, ensuring that the hardworking men and women of Australia can have confidence.

When we look at the types of registered organisations that we are talking about, we have the usual suspects of the trade unions but we also have AiG, VECCI, Master Builders et cetera. The Victorian farmers federation is a registered organisation. I think when the hardworking and fabulous farmers across regional Victoria, whether they be dairying down south or growing fruit in the centre, elect men and women to be their commodity chairs, to represent them to Victorian politicians and, indeed, come knocking on my door—and, I hope, on your door, Senator Urquhart—advocating for their needs and interests, they should be able to have every confidence that they are not going to be ripped off and that those people who are representing their interests are going to be held to account similarly to how company directors are held to account. That is not an unusual request and, again, I cannot believe that you are actually going there. But, then, maybe I should not be surprised.

I am a Victorian senator and I do not want to get partisan in this debate—I really do not—because this is about finding that sweet spot in a policy-setting sense, which I think we have done. But we have seen trotted out trade union hack after trade union hack after trade union hack on the opposite side to talk about this. On the Greens side, I must say, they are not trade union hacks; they are fighting for the hearts and minds of the trade union hacks, and that is a very real battle going on in the back streets and trades hall bars of every capital city across our nation at the moment.