Jess Walsh (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019. This is a bill that is about nothing more than union bashing. This bill is antiworker. It is completely without merit and it should be blocked by this chamber. There is nothing salvageable about this bill. It is fundamentally flawed. The original version of this bill was dangerous and extreme, and that's why the 45th Parliament rejected it. But here we are again: another Liberal government and another antiunion, antiworker bill.

This bill will be used to weaken the organisations that fight for Australian workers to get a decent pay rise, fight against wage theft, fight against exploitation, fight to ensure safe workplaces and fight to represent working Australians more than this government have ever done. The government have no plan to kickstart our faltering economy. They have no plan to deal with low wages, no plan to deal with the rising cost of living and no plan at all for our country. It is a third-term government that are desperately trying to distract us from their own failings. First, they tried to distract us by going after vulnerable Australians with their nasty robodebt scheme. Then they went after social security recipients again, threatening to expand their demanding cashless debit cards and their invasive drug tests. Now they're going after working Australians and their unions with an attack that is absolutely politically motivated.

That is what this bill is: an attack on working Australians and an attack on their unions. Not only does this bill interfere with workers' ability to democratically run their own union and determine who leads their own union but it also imposes higher and harsher regulations on unions than it does on any other organisation or business. Unions are not the same as most other organisations. Unions are democratically run. They work for the interests of their members and they are accountable to their members. They're run by committees of volunteers. This bill allows businesses to interfere with the running of those member-led democratic unions. They could be businesses that a union is investigating for wage theft or businesses that unions are trying to negotiate wage rises with. Those businesses could apply for a union official to be disqualified from office. They could apply for the union to be placed in administration. They could even apply for the union to be deregistered and shut down, and that is completely perverse. It is ridiculous. It is outrageous. Whatever the government may say about their amendments, there is an extraordinarily wide range of grounds upon which a union official could be disqualified or a union could be deregistered. That a union official could be excluded from their role for a few minor technical breaches is absolutely absurd. It's especially absurd when there is no suggestion from the government that someone like George Calombaris, who we know stole over $7 million from his staff, should be barred from running a business. Do we want a situation where someone like George Calombaris could, after finding out that the union was investigating him for this wage theft, actually apply to have the union deregistered to interfere with and stop their work? That is what this bill will deliver.

We have seen countless examples of employers ripping off their workers in recent years, from 7-Eleven to Domino's to Calombaris to Rockpool, but we do not see this government going after those employers. We are still waiting for legislation that will deal with that worker exploitation. We're waiting for any plan from the government to tackle slow wage growth and to deal with the massive and pervasive problems that we have around wage theft today.

So now the Attorney-General is going to introduce a penalty-units scheme to the bill: 60 penalty units for paperwork breaches; three strikes, or 180 units, and you're out—a union official can be disqualified. Well, I am really looking forward to the government rolling out this new scheme to the big banks and businesses that break the law. How many penalty points should we attach to wage theft and doctoring pay records? How many penalty points should we attach to companies that endanger workplace health and safety? How many penalty points should we attach to a bank that sells dodgy insurance? And how many penalty points should we attach to a bank, a financial institution, that's in breach of money-laundering laws? How many penalty points is that going to count for? Last week, Westpac was accused of 23 million breaches of money-laundering law, and that would be 1,000,380,000 penalty points, if this legislation applied to them—which of course it doesn't, because there is one rule for the big banks and another rule for workers and their unions. What kind of punishment would that bring, if just 180 penalty points can get a union disqualified under this government?

It is an internationally recognised human right for people to be able to freely organise into unions. This bill, by allowing such interference in unions, contravenes those international human rights.

Recently, my union, United Voice, chose to merge with the National Union of Workers to form the new United Workers Union. This was democratically decided, with thousands of union members voting in support of this merger. In fact, 45,000 members chose to vote in this election. That is exactly as it should be—union members deciding the future of their own union. They talked about it in their workplaces. They debated it. They decided. They thought about the future that they wanted for themselves and they voted. But, under this bill, employers can apply to block union mergers that they don't like through their proposed public interest test. We should be clear that this is not a public interest test; it is a big business test. And I do not recall any union being asked whether they approved of the merger of two corporations. So the government may claim that this bill is bringing the regulation of trade unions in line with that of corporations, but that is just completely ridiculous. It could not be further from the truth. Unions cannot seek to have a company director disqualified when that company has been endangering people's workplace safety—endangering their lives—or stealing their wages. Unions cannot apply to have a corporation deregistered or wound up because they don't like the practices of that corporation.

This bill—make no mistake—is about union bashing, plain and simple. It's union bashing that won't get anyone a pay rise today. It's union bashing that will not help the workers who are stuck in gig jobs, in insecure jobs, in labour hire jobs, who desperately need security and certainty about their jobs and their lives. It will not help the workers in Australia today who need two, three or even four jobs, under this government, to make ends meet. It's union bashing that will not make our workplaces any safer. It will not win equal pay for women. It will not stop the exploitation of migrant workers in our country. And this union bashing will do nothing to stop the epidemic of wage theft that is sweeping through industries across Australia.

I also want to be clear that this bill has absolutely nothing to do with integrity. Let me tell you what integrity is. Integrity is the union members that I know, who devote their lives to their union, in their own time, without pay, because they believe in a better future for their workmates and a better deal for workers across the country. Integrity is the women and men who work in factories, childcare centres, schools and hospitals and then go to union meetings after hours to make sure that everyone can have a decent and secure job where they are respected and can earn a decent living wage. That is integrity. Integrity is the thousands of union officials across Australia who get up every day and go to work with the sole purpose of providing support and advice to working Australians when they need it most. That is integrity. This Prime Minister should ensure the integrity of his own government before going after organisations that are not even out for a personal benefit—organisations that are there to protect and improve the working conditions of their members: hardworking Australians, the same hardworking Australians that the Prime Minister claims that he's here for, that he stands up for, but he never does.

Unions are not the enemy. Unions are actually the members that they are made of. Unions are their hardworking members, nothing more and nothing less. Unions are dedicated to fighting for respect and good, secure jobs for all Australians. They provide a voice to people who otherwise wouldn't have one. Talk to any union member and they'll say the same thing.

Take Kylie, who's an early childhood educator in Melbourne. Kylie has been a union member her entire professional career. I spoke to her to get her views about this bill. She was one of the amazing union members who fought to introduce educator-to-child ratios and then fought again a few years ago against attempts to scrap them. Early childhood educators won that fight collectively in their union. Those ratios that were protected weren't just good for the educators; they were also good for the children that the educators are tasked with caring for, nurturing and educating. Kylie says:

Being a member has allowed us to stand up and use our voice. They should be supporting unions. We just need to look at all the cases recently about wage theft, about under payments in hospitality, in supermarkets, high profile chefs, companies forging documents to get away with it. Without union membership, the individual employee doesn't have the power to stand up against a big organisation or big business.

She went on to tell me her views about this bill:

There is this misconception among some that union members are … thugs. That's not the case at all. We are the average Australian. We are the working people of Australia. How else are we going to have our voice unless we have the opportunity to come together?

Kylie, as a union member, gets it. She has seen firsthand what would happen if the union wasn't there to back her up and give her a voice.

Then there's Mo, an aviation security officer who has worked in the industry for the past 20 years. Mo, on a number of occasions, has chosen to bravely stand up and speak out about cutbacks and injustice at work. Every time he does that, he is targeted by his employer for speaking out, and every time he is targeted, the union is there to back him up. When I asked him about this bill, Mo said:

I absolutely believe that our government should be supporting the unions and I believe that the fact that our government has introduced this bill shows that they are not prepared to stand with workers.

He said:

Basically, our Liberal Government is prepared to look after the interests of employers first. It is a dangerous path to be weakening unions. Wage theft will increase, more staff will lose their jobs unfairly, more staff will be exploited.

The union is there to make sure that every worker … has the dignity and respect they deserve at their work place.

So Mo has a message for the Prime Minister:

I would say to the Prime Minister, if you really care about the workers of this country, if you really care and have respect for workers, then withdraw this union busting bill. Think about the workers, their rights and their dignity.

Kylie and Mo are two incredible union members who campaign hard to improve the workplace rights of all hardworking Australians. Does the Prime Minister think that Kylie and Mo are the problem? Are they union thugs? Are Kylie and Mo the problem that the Prime Minister is trying to solve with this bill? The Prime Minister needs to explain to them why he is going after their unions and why he isn't going after the wage thieves that Kylie talked about when we met. When we spoke to both Kylie and Mo, it was very clear that they strongly believe that this government has its priorities absolutely wrong. Here is a government that is going after workers and their unions. Kylie and Mo want to know why the government is not focusing on the real issues that are facing Australians today. Kylie had this to say to the Prime Minister:

I would say that perhaps he needs to wake up and see what the majority of this country is all about. This country is struggling, employees across the country struggle to live on the wage of one job. This should not be the case, where you're struggling to make ends meet, wondering where the next meal is coming from, how you are going to pay the bills. He needs to listen to the actual whole of Australia, not just the one percenters.

Kylie is absolutely right. Why isn't the Prime Minister and his government taking action on the real issues that are facing Australia right now? Every week there's a new story in the press about how gloomy the outlook is for the economy. Just last week it was retail figures—the worst in three decades, down 0.2 per cent over the year. That is the worst result since the 1990s recession, not to mention that the RBA again downgraded growth forecasts for the Australian economy. And we know that, for so long now, economists across the country have been screaming out about the state of our economy. Last month we had the IMF ringing the alarm bells again and downgrading their forecasts for Australia's economic growth. Business wants the government to act. But the government do not have a plan for our faltering economy, and they have their priorities all wrong. They are spending too much time dealing with this ridiculous union-busting bill, and they're doing it at a time when wage growth—the very thing that unions fight for and stand for—is a huge problem in our country. Not only does stagnant wage growth increase the pressure on households budgets; it means that people have less money to spend in the economy as a whole.

It is beyond belief that the government would be trying to weaken unions at the very time that unions need more resources and more tools to win wage growth in our country. We know that the best way for Australians to get a pay rise, the best way to get wages moving in this country, is for people to join their union. But this bill is all about the government's vendetta, its political attack, against trade unions. It is just another example of a government that is not looking out for Australians.

Let's look at their track record: a faltering economy, stagnant wage growth, out-of-control bills, increasing food insecurity, demonisation of social security recipients, the targeting of vulnerable Australians with robodebt and an NDIS that isn't able to meet the needs of people, because the government took funds from it to prop up their budget. These are the government's priorities. This is a government that will not stand up for working Australians. They will not stand up for low-income workers, they will not stand up for workers who are having their wages stolen, they will not stand up for Australians stuck in insecure jobs and they will not stand up for the right of all Australians to freely join their union.

So what is the point of this government? What is their plan for Australia? What is their vision for our country? Is it a country where people just go to work and never speak up? Is it a country where people just stay quiet, where people just put up with it? That is exactly what it looks like. This government wants to deliver a country where workers are on low wages as part of their economic plan and where those workers are too frightened to speak out and just have to cop it.