Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note also, that in answer to some other questions, the minister has raised the question of awards being complex. This is a myth that is being perpetrated by the Prime Minister—that somehow there's a complexity with awards, with what people should be paid. The complexity extends to Woolworths—the same company that can actually send you a text if you are within 50 metres of it about what you should be buying based on your purchasing history for the last three years—to Bunnings, another multi, multi-million dollar company, and to Domino's. So, apparently, wage theft occurs due to the complexity. No, it's because they are thieving. They don't put money into making sure that they pay people correctly, because they don't care; they aren't fearful of what this government will do.

As you keep demonising unions and as we are seeing it becoming more and more difficult to organise people in workplaces, we are seeing more and more wage theft. It's not a surprise that wage theft is happening. It's not a surprise that we've got a situation where there is substantial wage stagnation. Actually, the World Bank says, and the IMF has said it in reports, that it is because unionisation has declined. It has declined because legislative frames have been put in place by various governments, including this one that this government is planning on putting in. The points system that has been put forward will continue to drain unions of substantial resources.

The Registered Organisations Commission, the ROC, has been found to have improperly gone after the AWU over a matter that was 12 years old. Let's put this matter in context. We all read about that money that was being spent by the AWU 12 years ago, because it was in a press statement and in the paper. It was discussed at their National Committee of Management. It was discussed publicly about GetUp! and its operations. It wasn't like it was something that was hidden and kept quiet for 12 years. It was something that was on the public record.