Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to speak on the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014. This bill seeks to establish a registered organisation commission, headed by a registered organisation commissioner, hand-picked by this government. The new Registered Organisation Commissioner would have greater powers than those of the general manager of the Fair Work Commission.

Before I get into the detail of this legislation, I will say it never ceases to amaze me when those people on the other side start talking about former Labor members of parliament in such a glowing terms as we have heard this morning in the contributions from government members. There was talk this morning about people such as Bill Kelty, who headed up the ACTU, and Paul Howes, the former National Secretary of the AWU. It is just a great shame that those on the other side did not even utter any ounce of respect for those people when they were in those positions. But because it happens to fit their agenda today in this debate they have started making reference to these former members and rolling out all these fabulous things.

But it has been even more extraordinary than that, because we had a contribution this morning from Senator Roberts. I do not normally listen to his contributions in this place, but today it was just an extraordinary contribution! It was just extraordinary! This is a man who is totally ill informed about this legislation. He is totally ill informed or he has a prejudice against unions. It was just a gobsmacking contribution. I think perhaps he should go and have a read of his own speech and then reflect on it.

Then we had the contribution of Senator Macdonald. He was critical of my contribution when I had not even spoken in this place in this debate. It was a bit reminiscent, quite frankly, of when this government voted against their own legislation in the House of Representatives.

But I will go back to the bill. The bill modifies disclosure requirements and increases red tape. The bill contains higher penalties for several contraventions and introduces criminal offences in respect of officers' duties which are modelled on but also exceed those found in the Corporations Act 2001. These sanctions are onerous, disproportionate and unfair and will prevent employers who volunteer to work for employer bodies from continuing that work.

The bill treats volunteers like the chief executives of corporate boards, except without the pay and conditions. This bill was defeated on three separate occasions by the 44th Parliament, along with the ABCC bill. Today, this bill is being taken out of the bottom drawer by a desperate government that has nothing else to say—a government bereft of any plan for the future of this nation and a government that quite frankly cannot go a week without stuffing something up. This is a government that has voted against itself twice in the House of Representatives—not once, but twice. This is a government that is unfit to govern this nation. This is a government that actually called on itself to demand it explain its own failings. I think that is pretty good; members of the government have actually had some foresight—they themselves concur that they are not up to the job.

This is a government whose members have been so preoccupied fighting each other that it has achieved nothing but a bunch of thought bubbles, and we have seen that week after week. In its desperation, it is returning to the anti-union, anti-worker and anti-fairness agenda it has always clung to. It has cut paid parental leave again, which will see 70,000 mothers lose some or all of their paid parental leave. It has called new mothers who have collective paid parental leave entitlements that intersect with the government's scheme 'double-dippers' and 'rorters'. The Turnbull government's approach to bargaining across the APS has been to strip away rights and conditions that give workers a voice in the workplace. This is evident in the Members of Parliament Staff Enterprise Agreement 2016-2019 currently being proposed. It has quite frankly come to the table and said, 'There is no way that we are going to be here and bargain with you.' It has put an offer on the table and said take it or leave it. This is the character of this government.

This morning I was reading something in the media that is quite apt when you consider that the AAA rating of the economy is at risk yet again under the stewardship of Mr Turnbull. This a piece in The Australian newspaper—I know how much the government members like to refer to that newspaper—is very timely, because it is pointed towards the Prime Minister. In fact, the headline is, 'How to be Prime Minister.' That is pretty good, after somebody knifed Mr Abbott to take on the top job. We all know that Mr Turnbull has always had the ambition and the drive to be Prime Minister, but, unfortunately, since becoming Prime Minister he has not delivered on anything. He raised expectations in the community, particularly after he rolled Tony Abbott, that he was going to be a new Prime Minister—a 21st-century Prime Minister. His government would be agile. It has been anything but agile. Mr Turnbull, if you are listening, perhaps you might want to refer to The Australian. It is a very good article; it might give you a few tips—although I am not sure that anything will help you at this late stage.

This Prime Minister did the ultimate deed by knifing someone else in the back to take on the role, but he has failed to show any economic leadership for our nation. The man is well suited—we know that; he has better suits—but, to be quite frank with you, nothing much else has changed. The Liberal government still has no clear economic plan to speak of. Nothing has been done on the future of our economy, absolutely nothing. Again, in the papers this morning it is reported the AAA rating that we guard so jealously is under threat under this government. We have seen no economic leadership from Mr Turnbull. He has failed to be up front about his tax plans and has offered nothing to the Australian people. He is more interested in taking selfies with President Obama than displaying any economic leadership.

This week, we have a desperate government that knows that if it does not get its 2016 election trigger bills through a Senate it does not control it will look even more helpless and less able to articulate a vision. I do not blame Australians for wondering what the point of a double dissolution was. I ask myself that time and time again. What was the point of Mr Turnbull calling a double dissolution, when it has been almost five months since the election and only now do we have the bill before us? It is as clear as day that Mr Turnbull does not have any idea about where this government should go. He has no idea on the sort of policies that he needs to take forward. The only thing that he does know is that he is fighting every day for his own job—and he is fighting within his own caucus.

This Prime Minister promised to fix the budget and create jobs and growth, but all he has delivered to date are growing deficits, more debt, record low wages and record unemployment. Malcolm Turnbull's jobs and growth mantra during the 2016 federal election was nothing more than an empty slogan. Empty words and empty promises—that is all we are seeing from this government. The only plan the Turnbull government has put forward is a $50 billion tax cut for big business—the big end of town—which will smash the budget when Australians can least afford it. Looking at the statistics, it is clear that the Turnbull government has failed the Australian economy. There are 261,100 young people unemployed—young Australians. There are 261,100, and too many of them are in my home state of Tasmania. The number of Australians giving up on finding work is at the highest level since 2006. The government just cut 128,000 apprenticeship places from the system in the midst of a skills shortage. These are the sorts of decisions that the government is making. There are over 1.8 million Australians who cannot find a job. That is 1.8 million Australians who do not have a job. Wages growth has fallen to another record low. The government is still hurting middle and working class families by attacking penalty rates. Its continuous attacks on Medicare are damaging to workplaces and economic productivity.

Those on the opposite side of this place will always support the big end of town, but they have never and they will never represent or support workers in this country. We on this side of the chamber know the importance of the union movement and we value the work that unions do on behalf of hardworking Australians. We support unions and we support the best possible standard of union governance. We on this side of the chamber have zero tolerance of corruption. That is zero tolerance of corruption.