Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, it hasn't resulted in improved services for the members of these registered organisations. You would think that unions that have $1.5 billion in assets and an estimated revenue stream annually of $900 million would be effective in representing the interests of their members, but the bad news for members in 2017 is that this is not the case. That, colleagues, may be why union membership is dwindling, but what we've seen time and time again is that some of the wealthiest unions in the country have been doing deals with big business—and we go back to big unions, big business. These deals cut the penalty rates for their own members. What we've also seen time and time again is that unions have been doing deals—again, big unions, big business—where they take payments from employers, who, in turn, ensure that the workers are worse off.

Let me give you some examples in relation to the current Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. He knows all about this, because this is what his union, the Australian Workers' Union, the AWU, did. They took payments from companies who, at the same time, were laying off factory workers. What they were doing at the same time as they were taking the money was pushing permanent workers on to labour hire arrangements. But also, colleagues, at the same time as the unions were taking money from the employer business, they were slashing and abolishing the penalty rates of the workers they both allegedly represented. Unions are no longer representing their members. They talk about big business because they are big business, and they should be acknowledged as such.