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

They put out several press releases and several interviews. But this government and the ROC, which is independently going to assess whether these matters are of public interest, are going to take these matters to court. That is disgusting, outrageous and crooked. We have a situation here now. Let's talk about corporate equivalence. Australia's oldest bank, Westpac, is the most epic corporate lawbreaker. It's like the creepy uncle of the big four banks. They facilitate paedophile rings. This is what we're facing, yet what points are they going to lose? Where is the disqualification of senior officers of their companies or their business? They are serious questions to ask. That's equivalent. But what's equivalent for one is not right for the other.

Were the government's demerit scheme applied to banks, for owing their customers so much compensation, how many points do you think they would be up? After the banking royal commission the Commonwealth Bank had to pay out a whopping $2.17 billion in compensation to customers who were ripped off. If we were to take the demerit system that applies for unions and apply that to banks, that would be 10 million penalty units incurred. The Commonwealth Bank breached the threshold, in an application being brought forward, 11,000 times. Where's the corporate equivalence? Where is it? NAB has set aside some $1.18 billion in compensation for its theft. That's 5.6 million penalty units. That is 6,222 times they have gone over the threshold. Where's the corporate equivalence? Let's take out the 23 million and many more examples that exist from their recent extravaganza of operations; Westpac and ANZ are already paying out $1.1 billion each in compensation. That's roughly 5.2 million penalties units each. If we were debating an 'ensuring integrity of banks' bill and applying the same standards then over 5,500 applications could be made against the big banks. That's corporate equivalence. But it's not just the banks; Bunnings, Domino's 7-Eleven, Fedora and Woolworths have taken millions from workers.

Talking about corporate equivalence, let's go back to a very important point that Senator Ayres raised before about 'Pig Iron' Bob—your hero, Bob Menzies, the guy who sent all the pig iron over to make bombs and maim and kill innocent people in China. Let's use your hero. That was banned. Unions banned that, and action was taken against them. Then we turn to the example of environmental questions and talk about green bans—issues that people turn around and take on, which was the most important thing that was done to save The Rocks in Sydney. Those workers went on strike, went off the job and gave up their wages to save Sydney. That would be illegal under this bill. That would be illegal under this system. They would be deregistered.

I'll use the examples of actions against Fiji and Iraq that I've been involved. The Indian government, during one of the Iraqi wars, refused to fuel Australian planes, because they wanted to keep the fuel to get their own nationals out of the Middle East. The union I'm still a member and an official of put bans on Indian flights. Do you know what happened? The fuel got released for Australian people to get out of that country. Those are breaches of the Fair Work Act, and I'm proud to say that the union said that they would stand up for Australians who were stranded in the Middle East. Fiji—in actual fact I have dealt with Mahendra Chaudhry over a number of years, seeing the work he did in Fiji when the coups occurred and the response to those coups. His son worked side by side with me for a number of years as an officer of the TWU. When the coup occurred in that country, he tells the tale—in actual fact he's a little bit held back in saying it himself. One of his compatriots, whilst they were locked in— (Time expired)

Progress reported.