Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety) Share this | Hansard source

What else have the unions ever done for us? Rostered days off, sick leave, bereavement leave, public holidays, annual leave with a loading. My goodness me, workers being able to have a minimum of four weeks leave with pay! In a lot of places it's gone out to six weeks, and so it should.

What else have the unions done for us? My goodness me, they negotiated long service leave! They're now negotiating domestic violence leave. It was the unions that negotiated maternity and paternity leave. It was the unions that negotiated superannuation and continue to enforce superannuation. We found out through an economics committee that in this nation there has been no less than $6 billion in superannuation theft. That's even before I get to the bigger problem of wage theft.

What else have the unions done for us? My goodness me, they even negotiated shift allowances and living away from home allowances! It was the unions that pushed for permanent employment in a majority of workplaces. Madam Deputy President, you and I both know that the corporations and a lot of employers in this nation would love nothing better than to employ casuals. They'd love that. Tell me how many casuals can go to the bank and get a home loan?

What else have the unions done for us? It is the unions that are continually negotiating wage rises for us. Look at wage stagnation in this nation. Wage stagnation in this nation is shocking. But in the union yards and the yards where the unions are represented there is collective bargaining. There at least they have the ability to try and succeed in getting wage rises through enterprise bargaining.

It was the unions that introduced dispute resolution protections and unfair dismissal protections. How much time in our previous lives did you, Madam Deputy President, and I spend in the commission trying to negotiate an unfair dismissal case when you and I both knew the dismissal was completely out of order? We had the ability to represent our members. Most of the time we got them back on the job, and, if they didn't get back on the job, they were able to leave with dignity and were paid the money they were entitled to.

What else have the unions done for us? Let's talk about wage recovery. I don't see any employers or the government going out there prosecuting the case for wage recovery. It is the unions that do that. What else have the unions done for us? Goodness me, we even get paid weekend penalty rates—oh, unless, of course, you're employed in hospitality or are one of the retail and pharmacy workers who aren't under an enterprise agreement. I forgot about that. It wasn't the unions that stripped penalty rates. It was that mob over there moving legislation in this place to give employers the opportunity to do that, under the pretext that there would be more jobs. Well, how the heck has that worked out? I would be interested to see how many more jobs have been created.

What have the unions ever done for us? Redundancies. One of the worst things we have to do as union organisers is negotiate redundancies, not because we're going to see a few bob going into the pocket of a worker who has lost their job through no fault of their own; the sad part is that they've lost their jobs. The majority of these workers don't have other jobs to go to, so at least the unions are able to negotiate redundancies. How many times, Madam Deputy President, have you and I sat there and had to negotiate redundancies and then, lo and behold, what do we find on the site a few months later? Labour hire. We can start at the top of the chain on this. Major corporations are notorious for this. I don't have to mention them here, because we know who they are.

What else have the unions done for us? I don't think it was the employers who led the charge in the industrial revolution to make sure that workers didn't lose their fingers, their arms or their legs or get injured without an ounce of compensation through workers compensation. It was the unions that negotiated that. I could go on for hours and hours about what the unions have done for us.

I come from a trucking background, and I, unlike the majority of sycophants on the other side, who have just gone and worked for someone who would give them a job in parliament, have lived and breathed it. I come from the trucking industry where I worked with my hands. I followed my old man, and I'm proud to say that my son has followed me. We get out of bed in the morning and say: 'We want to put our boots on; we want to go to work; we want to earn a good quid.' We know we've got to work hard, but the beauty is that, if something goes wrong, I can fall back on the protection of my union membership should I need it—should I be unfairly targeted for my activism on the worksite. Not that I want to see the employer go broke—not at all—but I want to share the common wealth all the way down the chain from the employer through to the employees. And it is the unions in this nation that have done this over the hundred-odd years that they've been active, clearly. It was the unions that formed the Australian Labor Party—we all remember that—following the dispute with the shearers because, as the unions said very clearly, we wanted to have a voice in the parliament to represent working men and women. And it might pay the Greens to listen. You might get an education on how unions work, and, my goodness me, some of you need it.