Jo Lindgren (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill (No 2) 2014 and to support the workers of Australia. Transparency and accountability are the fundamental principles that allow the people of Australia to have faith and belief in the people or organisations that represent them. Transparency and accountability delivers integrity, peace of mind and, most importantly, good governance.

This bill will amend the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009 to: establish an independent watchdog, the Registered Organisations Commission, to monitor and regulate registered organisations with enhanced investigation and information gathering powers; strengthen the requirements for officers' disclosures of material personal interests and to change grounds for disqualification and ineligibility for office; strengthen existing financial accounting, disclosure and transparency obligations under the act by putting certain rules of obligation on the face of the act and making them enforceable as civil remedy provisions; and increase civil penalties and introduce criminal offences for serious breaches of officers' duties as well as introduce new offences in relation to the conduct of investigations under the act.

Both employer and employee organisations make decisions, invest money and resources and advocate on behalf of their members. This is similar to registered companies making the same undertakings on behalf of their shareholders. Companies are bound by a number of legislative requirements and frameworks. They are there to ensure that the process by which a company operates: is within the law; is making structured sound spending or investment decisions on behalf of its shareholders; and, amongst other things, is not making decisions based purely personal gain or self-promotion. It is only a natural progression and an equitable outcome that our employer and employee organisations should be governed by the same robust governance. Those opposite will argue that tighter measures were introduced into the Fair Work Act legislation in 2012 and that the arrangement is now strong and efficient.

The front page of the newspapers across this country tell a different story, with regular, ugly news pieces about the blight of bullies, foul mouthed rogues and stand-over men within some of these organisations. The current regulations are just not working and due to that workers and businesses alike are suffering at the hands of self-regulated ideologists. As a member of a chamber of commerce, or a member of a workplace union, I would want to know who was running my organisation, what qualifications they have, what potential conflicts of interest may pertain to them, what they are being paid and where my money is being spent. This is not unreasonable nor should it raise eyebrows. Of course the chance of union bashing or witch-hunts will arise. Desperate times for those opposite call for desperate measures.

Judith Sloan, the contributing economics editor for The Australian, on 1 May 2012 wrote:

The reputational damage caused by the shenanigans at the HSU is likely to have led to a further hemorrhaging of members—this is already apparent in terms of resignations from the HSU. But the effect is likely to be more widespread. With the lack of transparency in union affairs, who can tell what other unions get up to?

The workers of Queensland deserve better than this. Sloan goes on to say:

The alternative strategy for the union movement is to embrace choice and competition and commit to high standards of governance. By providing real benefits to members in an open and transparent manner, there may be a chance workers can be attracted to join up.

As my colleague Scott Buchholz MP said when debating the bill:

… this bill enhances the union movement—in particular honest union members. What this bill seeks to rub out is what we see time after time in the Australian press: the word 'union' associated too many times with 'bullying', 'coercion', 'intimidation', 'thuggery', 'corruption' and 'royal commission' … The setting up of a royal commission stands to strengthen and enhance honest union membership.

In The Australian on 16 May 2012, Paul Howes of the AWU argued:

… 99 per cent of our movement has nothing to fear ... from more transparency, from being more open and ensuring we act diligently.

… If a dodgy boss rips off our workers … we hunt that boss down … and we make sure that they pay back to their workers what they deserve …

… And if we have a dodgy trade union official who rips off those workers, we need to hunt them down too …

During a submission to the Senate regarding the bill, the ACTU said:

The Bill is poorly conceived, badly motivated, and entirely unnecessary.

... It is … transparently political … in an area where there is no extant public policy problem.

Perhaps several front pages of newspapers and a royal commission would see that statement being revised at the moment. Again, I must draw the attention of the House and the ACTU to the current industrial affairs being played out across our nation, where a few rogues feel justified in holding the country to ransom on the back of their hardworking members' dues. I ask: does this not warrant a sensible consensus that action must be taken?

With regard to the criminal offence provisions contained through the bill, in particular proposed sections 337AB and 337AC, the evidentiary burden will be borne by the defendant with regard to their intent or reasonableness if charged under the provisions. This singular fact is itself a dissuader for one to indulge in contrary behaviour of that very type of bullying and harassment. How dare those opposite try and say that harsher penalties on people who scam hard-earned dollars from poor, unsuspecting workers are not appropriate? Go out and tell your members that they do not count, because that is effectively what you are saying. The 18 per cent of unionized workers will fall to 15 per cent, and maybe, just maybe, they will even cast a conservative vote.

The privilege that unions have of collecting money from their members to provide their members with fair representation is a myth if you are not prepared to back hard, tough laws against those delegates and leaders from the unions that seek to rort it.The workers need protection; the businesses need to employ more people; and you are available to help them here and now by supporting a bill that actually gets the bad guys. Whether they are union associated or employer associated, a bad guy is a bad guy. We make movies about it, and we all cheer when we get the bad guy. We teach our children in our homes and our schools that bad guys are just that—bad. This bill makes the bad guys pay and protects the innocent. It promotes security and encourages growth.

The Abbott government is committed to improving the Fair Work laws so that we can build a more stable, fair and prosperous future for Australia's workers, businesses and economy. The absolute need for this legislation almost goes without saying. The rorts, the rackets and the rip-offs have been in the media on almost a daily basis, and the wider community is strongly in favour of these reforms.

Until this parliament acts, Australia will not have a sufficiently robust system that ensures corruption is uncovered and eradicated before it becomes systemic—as it did in the infamous HSU case. It is simply no longer tenable to argue that the present system is adequate to deal with or discourage this kind of behaviour. Unions and employer associations play a critical role in workplace relations systems and the economy more broadly, and their members invest a great deal of trust in them. The community expectation is that these registered organisations will operate to the highest of standards. These organisations are given special legislated rights. With rights come responsibilities. We in the government believe that the majority of registered organisations do the right thing and in many cases maintain higher standards than those that are currently required.

The bill introduces legislative measures designed to see governance of registered organisations lifted to a consistently high standard across the board. A more robust compliance regime will deter wrongdoing and promote first-class governance of registered organisations. The Abbott government believes the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill will provide the certainty and high standards of operation that members of registered organisations are entitled to expect. It delivers clarity to both employer and employee organisations about good governance of their charters and restores the faith of those people most at risk: the membership. I fully support the passage of this bill.