David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014 [No. 2] is a very important piece of legislation, one which I have to say I would have thought, given recent events in the public domain—particularly the cases of Craig Thomson and Mr Michael Williamson—the Labor Party, in representing the actual workers who subscribe union dues to these unions, would welcome. I would think that any right-minded person seeing some of the most lowly paid workers and union members in our country being just nakedly, cruelly and cold-bloodedly ripped off by the likes of Craig Thomson and Michael Williamson would welcome this legislation, would welcome increased accountability and would welcome greater surveillance of positions of trust held by union officials.

Having cut my teeth as a young lawyer in Kalgoorlie, acting for both unions and for companies, I am left with the clear understanding that, in certain circumstances, workforces do need the representation of the union movement, the labour movement. In the 1930s in Kalgoorlie many workers suffered from silicosis, and it was the union movement that came to their assistance in dealing with that blight. But then I look at what has been happening in recent times—in the last 10 or 20 years or so. Union dues provide a very large corpus of money to be used in administration. What we have seen with respect to Mr Thomson and Mr Williamson has been a complete breakdown in fidelity and trust and a complete breakdown in loyalty to those Hospital Service Union members.

This piece of legislation establishes an independent watchdog, the commission, to monitor and regulate registered organisations with enhanced investigation and information gathering powers. It strengthens the requirements for officers to disclosure material personal interests and related voting and decision-making rights. In other words, it increases the surveillance on conflicts of interest so that wives and relatives cannot do work for the unions, as was the case with Mr Williamson. The bill strengthens existing financial accounting, disclosure and transparency obligations under the Registered Organisations Act by putting certain rule obligations on the face of the act and making them enforceable as civil remedy provisions. It also increases civil penalties and introduces criminal offences for serious breaches of officers' duties and introduces new offences in relation to the conduct of investigations under the Registered Organisations Act. The bill clearly intends to bring the obligations on union officials and those charged with the administration of union funds into the same realm as those of company directors, which I think is a very, very good thing because the trust and integrity involved in the role of such officials are very, very similar.

The government is committed to improving the fair work laws so that we can build a more stable, fair and prosperous future for workers, particularly from the perspective of transparency. Transparency as to where a union member's dues end up and how they are applied is a very important part of the way our industrial laws function. The need for this legislation really does go without saying. We have witnessed massive rorts, racketeering on an amazing scale and rip-offs that have been the subject of night after night of sensational media reporting. Clearly, any responsible government cannot sit on its hands and watch the sort of thing that has gone on—particularly exampled by Thomson and Williamson.

The charges and allegations against both of those people in their capacity as officers of the Health Services Union were, quite simply, shocking and completely unacceptable. Thomson was arrested in respect of more than 150 fraud related charges and is facing allegations that his 2007 election campaign was partly funded by siphoning union money without authorisation. Mr Williamson pleaded guilty to misusing almost $1 million of Health Service Union member funds. I pause to say that I think that we can all acknowledge that Health Service Union members—those men and women inside hospitals who do the cleaning and the menial tasks—are some of the lowest paid people in Australia today. And Mr Williamson, in a very callous and cold-blooded way simply ripped them off—just ripped them off. I find that completely and totally unacceptable. There are some who might want to say that that is not representative. We have seen charges from the royal commission, and the royal commission is setting out a litany of this sort of abuse of power by union officials. Members of the Health Services Union are asking how these gross breaches of trust—the Thomson and Williamson sagas—can occur. The obligation on this parliament is to, firstly, respond to the fact that Mr Williamson has pleaded guilty—and I underline that. That is, he has admitted and accepted that, in a guilty way, he simply stole the money of the members of this union. He has accepted that he was and is dishonest, and that he ripped these people off. Accordingly, the government seeks to act. I think this legislation is very well balanced in seeking, as I have said, to increase the transparency to provide the transparent powers for a commissioner to investigate such matters.

The bill introduces a suite of measures designed to see governance of registered organisations lifted to a consistently high standard across the board. That is so understandable in the face of what we have witnessed and so required that the parliament and the government should be congratulated for responding in the way that it has with this legislation. A more robust compliance regime will deter wrongdoing and promote first-class governance of registered organisations. In order to improve oversight of registered organisations the bill will establish a dedicated, independent watchdog—the Registered Organisations Commission—to monitor and regulate registered organisations and to provide them with enhanced investigation and information-gathering powers. The new commission will have the necessary independence and powers to regulate registered organisations effectively, efficiently and transparently. The commission will be headed by the Registered Organisations Commissioner, who will be appointed by the minister. The commission will have stronger investigation and information-gathering powers than those that currently apply. These will be modelled on those available to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, which will further enhance the ability of the commissioner to provide strong and efficient regulation of unions and employer associations. The commission will have the power to commence legal proceedings and to refer possible criminal offences to the DPP or law enforcement agencies.

In this legislation we are also increasing the penalties. For serious contraventions the maximum penalty will be increased to 1,200 penalty units, which is approximately $200,000—I think the units are worth $170 each—and for corporate breaches the penalties will be increased to 6,000 penalty units, which is about $1 million. I think the penalties for these sorts of breaches of trust, faith and abuse of power are very appropriate.

I want to pause to go over why the government is doing this. Of course, I need go no further than to deal with what happened with respect to Mr Craig Thomson, who was in fact a Labor Party member of this parliament. The Fair Work investigation into the Health Services Union national office identified a total of 181 contraventions of the Registered Organisations Act and the Health Services Union rules by the union officials and others. The claim against Mr Thomson included 37 alleged breaches of general duties imposed on officers of registered organisations and 25 alleged breaches of the Health Services Union rules. Mr Thomson was convicted of criminal charges in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court, on 18 February 2014. He subsequently appealed and, to the best of my understanding, was convicted of 13 charges of theft. As outlined in a statement made by the Fair Work Commission General Manager, Ms Bernadette O'Neill, on 18 February, Mr Thomson's criminal conviction will impact the civil proceedings, as the Registered Organisations Act provides that any corresponding civil proceedings that have been stayed will automatically be dismissed.

Let's deal with what was confronting law enforcement agencies when an investigation was carried out into the activities of Mr Thomson. On 31 January 2013 Mr Thomson was arrested by New South Wales Police in relation to allegations of fraud against the Health Services Union by Victorian police. The trial began on 2 December 2013, with Mr Thomson pleading not guilty to over 145 fraud-related charges. On 18 February 2014 Mr Rozencwajg found Mr Thomson guilty of using credit cards issued to him in his role as National Secretary of the Health Services Union between 2002 and 2007. So for five years this person apparently treated the Health Services Union as his own private banker.