Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This afternoon's debate comes at quite an important time, because over the recent five-week recess many of us were busy in our electorates. Many of us were organising to argue important points about fairness and equality on other sorts of issues not just in regard to the economy. Many of us might have taken an opportunity to go abroad during the recess. I used my time, amongst other causes, to review what was happening across the Australian media landscape. Over the last few weeks, it was interesting to see an increasing number of stories talking about wages growth or, more particularly, the lack of wages growth in Australia. It forced me to contemplate just how important it is to establish an economic narrative, how important it is to have an economic plan and how it is always important to build the trust of the parliament in being able to get that economic plan legislated.

Over the course of the first year of the Turnbull government, I think the record starts to look very, very clear. It's a record that bodes well for the next two years of the Turnbull government. We can start to point to a clear plan being implemented by the Turnbull coalition government around a number of important issues—important issues to Australian families and important issues to working Australians. Of course, when we talk about fairness and equality, we also need to reflect on privilege in our community. We often hear those opposite and some crossbench senators talking about the privilege that the Turnbull coalition government seeks to protect—arguments, I would argue, that are ill-conceived and narrow; arguments that are built on the politics of envy and the old politics of class warfare.

I reflected on an opinion piece that appeared in the Australian Financial Review that tackled the issue of privilege by identifying the trade union privilege that exists in the Australian economy. I might just read from that opinion piece in the short time that's available to me, because there is this great myth in Australia that trade unions exist to protect the interests of workers—not true. I noticed in the gallery many young children, schoolchildren. And I just want to remind them that the myth of the labour movement, whether it be the Australian Labor Party in our parliaments or the trade union movement, is that they are protecting ordinary working families—not true. I might just start by reading the opening remarks in this Australian Financial Review opinion piece. It says:

For all their talent at finding instances of "discrimination" and "privilege" in even the most benign of circumstances, Australia's modern left refuses to acknowledge, much less remedy, one of its most powerful and pernicious contemporary examples.

And I will remind you that here that we are talking about privilege and, in particular, trade union privilege. It goes on:

Trade union membership among Australians has been in precipitous decline for the last two decades. Just over 20 years ago, around 40 per cent of Australian workers were members of a trade union.

Today, that figure is just 15 per cent of the total workforce—and a mere 10 per cent of the private sector workforce. Perhaps most ominously for unions, they are failing to cultivate the next generation of workers, with just 6 per cent of employees aged 15-19 signing up.

This is even more remarkable when you consider that major retailers such as Coles and Woolworths—who employ large numbers of people in the 15-19 year old cohort—effectively act as recruitment agents for the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA).

I'm just wondering, Mr Acting Deputy President, whether you might have seen this opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review. Perhaps you did and perhaps you didn't. It goes on to say:

The union pays considerable sums to these retail giants, and in exchange they actively encourage their employees to join the SDA, helpfully facilitate the automatic deduction of union fees through their own payroll systems and nominate the union-controlled REST superannuation fund as the default choice for employees.

The argument goes on to say that in our economy, in Australian society, the real issue of privilege, if we are to tackle it, must be tackled by focusing on that trade union privilege that exists in the economy. It goes on to say:

So, despite the fact that the Australian economy is now more dependent than ever on small businesses competing in a globalised marketplace to drive growth and create jobs, we find ourselves saddled with a workplace relations system that is more centralised, inefficient and inflexible than the one that existed in 1993.

As a result, despite the fact that union membership is at an all-time low, the special privileges our centralised system confers on unions through the Fair Work Commission means they can still claim to negotiate on behalf of some 60 per cent of the total workforce.

That's the point. We have a trade union movement in a country whose membership is declining, particularly amongst young workers, who are not signing up to trade unions. I think that's a good thing. But what we say is that on the alternate side to that is this exceptional privilege, this exceptional power, this exceptional influence, that trade unions have through the Fair Work Commission.

If we turn more specifically to the issue of fairness and what we are doing for working Australians, much of this debate depends on the particular position you occupy, whether it's in the Australian political class or in the Australian economy, and whether or not you think that things are improving for Australian workers and Australian families. There can be no denying that things are more difficult for Australian families. In my home state of Western Australia we know that to be particularly true. Coming off the back of a tremendous commodity boom, significant investment in infrastructure is very, very necessary. We have now seen a significant slowing of the Western Australian economy, and that means that the lack of new jobs, the lack of future jobs, makes it much harder for families. It makes it harder for families to be confident about their future, how they set their budgets up, how they save, how they invest, how they extend their homes, how they plan for holidays and how they plan for their children's education. And, importantly, it does cause people some concern about what sorts of jobs might be available for their children and for their grandchildren as they start to enter the workforce.

But in this debate this afternoon I do just want to highlight one comment from Roger Wilkins, who is the deputy director of the Melbourne Institute and the author of what I think is quite an important report with regard to economic and lifestyle issues in Australia. Commenting on Bill Shorten's oft-repeated claim that inequality is at a 75-year high, he said:

I would push back a bit against that very broad sweeping statement that inequality is at a 75-year high, not just because if anything inequality looks like it's been edging downwards since the GFC— (Time expired)