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

Zero. My colleague from Tasmania, Senator Bilyk, knows this only too well. She was a former unionist. I have not been, but I have been a proud member of unions through my working life, because what my mother always used to say to us when we were growing up was, 'You get a job, you work hard and you belong to the union. It does not matter how hard you work, if the boss wants to get rid of you he will try to. If there is a downturn the first people who will go will be the workers, so always join your union.' Which I did.

Whether you sit in a boardroom or work in a factory, we believe that any corrupt behaviour should be met with the full force of the law. I cannot stress that enough. The diatribe contributed to this debate from those opposite has tried to paint a very different picture. I do not believe that anyone in this chamber would support any form of corruption, whether it is through a business—and we see a lot of white collar crime, but we do not very often hear about white collar crime from those opposite, though we always hear if there has been proven corruption within a union. And so it should be exposed for what it is. Whether it is in business, whether it is taxpayers' money or whether it is your sporting organisation—it does not matter. Zero tolerance is what we stand for on this side of the chamber.

Let's not pretend that this legislation, as it stands, is about better workplaces or stronger unions. That is not what this government wants. This government would be very happy to sit back while workers in this country were being paid half the minimum wage. They have done nothing to look at the widespread rorts or corruption and rorting in the 457 and temporary work visa system. The only time they talk about wages is when they complain that they are too high. Mr Turnbull does not want to support stronger unions which represent the interests of working people. The government's goal is quite the opposite: it is to destroy the link between the trade union movement and the Labor Party. That is it—be up-front about it! Tell it for what it is—that is what your belief is. We will fight and stand by Australian workers every single day.

Their goal is to destroy the capacity of trade unions to organise and to bargain collectively. Their agenda is demonstrated by their legislative program, the way they conduct themselves in parliament and the royal commission conducted by the most partisan of commissioners, Dyson Heydon. This is a government which has gone after former and current Labor leaders through an abuse of executive power and spending millions of taxpayer dollars. This is a government which introduced absolutely no legislation as a result of their trade union royal commission. They had one agenda—to blacken the union movement and Mr Shorten—but they failed, because there was nothing there to find. This government has given us plenty of reason not to trust them when it comes to workplace relations. Any resolution in relation to this bill or the ABCC is only the first step in the government's anti-union, anti-worker agenda. It is all part of their crusade against workers.

The way the government carries on you would think there was absolutely no regulation or registration of organisations. That is the picture they have tried to paint here this morning. But nothing could be further from the truth. The act already prohibits members' money from being used to favour particular candidates in internal elections or campaigns. It already allows for criminal proceedings being initiated where funds are stolen or are obtained by fraud. It already ensures that the Fair Work Commission can share information with the police as appropriate. It already provides for statutory civil penalties where a party knowingly or recklessly contravenes an order or direction made by the Federal Court or the Fair Work Commission. Officers of registered organisations already have fiduciary duties akin to those of directors under corporations law. The act already requires officers to disclose their personal interests.

The only reason this Prime Minister is talking about this legislation is to try and pacify the hard-right wolves of his Party. Labor is better than that. We are interested in improving this legislation to make it worthwhile, to genuinely improve conditions for employees and employers.

In December last year, the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow minister for employment and workplace relations, Brendan O'Connor, announced new measures to detect and deter corruption in trade unions and employer associations. Labor will move amendments in the Senate which seek to implement our election policy. Firstly, rather than creating a new government bureaucracy, the Registered Organisations Commission, Labor proposes that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission use its extensive coercive powers to investigate serious breaches of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act.

Secondly, we will increase penalties for behaviour which is intended to deceive union members or the regulator. We will double the maximum penalties for all criminal offences under the act. We will increase the fine for false and misleading conduct from $10,800 to $18,000. For paid officials who act in a way that materially prejudices the interests of the union or its members, we will increase the fine from $10,800 to $216,000. Only officials in paid positions who are responsible for decisions about the financial management of registered organisations will be subject to these penalties—not volunteers.

Thirdly, Labor's amendments will increase audit requirements and penalties for auditors. We want to make sure that those people who are charged with the responsibility of independently examining the finances of registered organisations do so in a professional and accountable manner. Auditors that choose not to report misconduct in registered organisations could themselves be subject to imprisonment. This will ensure that auditors are not complicit in their silence. Further, in relation to auditing, we will require the rotation of auditors so that there is sufficient turnover to ensure that new parties are coming in to examine the books, resulting in greater scrutiny and independence.

Fourthly, we are proposing a new donation threshold for union officials and politicians alike. It is time to extend the current electoral funding laws to donations and expenditure for all elections managed by the Australian Electoral Commission, whether they are union elections or the federal election. Any entity associated with candidates in such elections should be required to publicly disclose the total value of payments made, receipts and debts each year. Our amendments to this legislation will reduce the current disclosure threshold in the Commonwealth Electoral Act for election funding from $13,000 down to $1,000, as well as prohibit anonymous donations over $50 and introduce measures to end the practice of donation splitting by related entities, which can be used to avoid disclosure thresholds and so undermine donation transparency. The government are happy to go after unions when it comes to disclosure thresholds and transparency but they are not willing to apply the same standard to themselves.

Fifthly, we want stronger protections for whistleblowers. The penalties for those taking adverse action against whistleblowers are currently limited to a $4,500 fine, imprisonment for six months or both. Labor's improvements to this legislation will extend whistleblower protections to the private and not-for-profit sector and mean that people who seek to intimidate or silence whistleblowers will face two years jail and an $18,000 fine.

In summary, Labor will support an amended bill that will increase penalties but exempt volunteers, provide greater protection for whistleblowers, provide more accountability for auditors and provide more accountability for electoral donations by reducing the disclosure amount from $13,200 to $1,000, whether in union elections or federal elections.

We are genuinely interested in passing good legislation. So I say to those on the other side of the chamber: do not make this politically motivated, actually look at the amendments and make sure that the very best legislation is passed through this place, because, quite frankly, you do not have a very good track record on the legislation that you bring before us. We know, in fact, that those opposite have no legislation. We are spending an inordinate amount of time dealing with non-controversial legislation because those opposite are filibustering because they are still trying to get the numbers for various pieces of legislation. It is about time we saw something of the real Mr Turnbull and his agile, 21st century government, before it is too late.