Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald is dead right there. Senator Bernardi, no, it did not achieve its objective of workforce development, but it certainly achieved the real objective the Labor Party had, which was union development and union recruitment. They designed a program to help their union mates out. Indeed, they let the unions design the program. The ANAO found that United Voice provided the wage schedules within the program. United Voice developed them, not the department. United Voice sent them straight to the Prime Minister's office and, from there, they went straight into the program. The PwC found that the fund was used simply as a vehicle to increase union membership. When the union was challenged as part of the inquiry as to whether they used it to drive up membership, they said, 'Why wouldn't we?' Of course, that is what they had been invited to do by those opposite when they took taxpayer dollars as a vehicle to lift their membership— (Time expired)