Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This is an outrageous and egregious abuse of the processes of this Senate. The government has completely failed to make the case for urgency here. But what I do want to say, having pointed that out, is that the legislation to which this motion applies is nothing less than a charter of rights for corporations. It is a charter of rights that will actually act as enabling legislation for big corporations to continue to exploit workers in this country by the mechanism of attacking the representation of Australian workers. Citizens do not have a charter of rights in Australia. We are the only liberal democracy in the world where citizens do not have their rights enshrined either legislatively or constitutionally. Workers don't get a charter of rights in this country, but it looks like the big corporates are going to get their charter of rights.

There are 23 million reasons why the government is pulling the wrong rein here, and those 23 million reasons are the 23 million admitted breaches by Westpac, by one of our big banks in Australia. By the way, that is coming on the back of numerous breaches by the Commonwealth Bank in the past—breaches of national security legislation and breaches of counterterrorism legislation. In the latest Westpac breaches there were even payments that related to child exploitation materials, paedophile materials. Yet here are the government coming in because, presumably, they've done a dirty deal with some parts of the crossbench to get this perniciously named 'ensuring integrity' legislation through the parliament.

This is a draconian attack on workers in Australia and on the unions who represent workers in this country. What we don't need now is a further crackdown on workers to go with the crackdown on civil society and on people who want to express their political views by participating in peaceful and non-violent protests. What we actually need in Australia is a crackdown on big corporates, which are polluting this environment, which are destroying nature and which are exploiting their workers. That's what this country needs, not yet another draconian, ideologically motivated attack on workers and their representatives in this country at the behest of the big corporates that donate so effusively to the deep pockets of the Liberal and National parties in this country.

So the Greens will not be supporting this motion, because this motion is to enable the passage of bills that are fundamentally antiworker and that are fundamentally antidemocratic. I'll make you a prediction: after those 23 million breaches by Westpac, I don't think we're going to see Westpac deregistered as a result. I'd bet my house that Westpac won't be deregistered, and I'd also bet my house that we won't see criminal charges laid as a result of those 23 million breaches. We will see some fines, for sure, but no-one will be imprisoned and certainly none of the big banks are going to be deregistered for enabling paedophilia and terrorism in this country. That's what is at stake here.

Now this government wants to bring in legislation that will provide a fast track to the deregistration of workers' representatives in Australia. Make no mistake, colleagues: we're living in a corporatocracy in Australia right now, a corporatocracy that is resulting in the devastation of nature, in the breakdown of our climate, in wage stagnation, in intergenerational poverty and in the massive exploitation of workers in Australia. The Greens won't be supporting this motion and we will not be supporting the legislation to which this motion pertains.