Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

tor ROBERTS () (): The sanctity of work. As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia I want to make a plea to support workers. I've worked in canneries, in manufacturing, in restaurants in the kitchen. I've worked in the vineyards, I've worked under the sun, I've worked underground, I've worked in open-cut coal mines. But my greatest joy was working underground as a coalface miner. That's where I got my proudest time at work.

People spend around eight to nine hours, on average, per day, working. It's an extremely important part of our lives. The sanctity of work is extremely important. That is being destroyed by negligent managers across sectors, but also, sadly, by rogue union bosses in some large unions.

I've been a member of the coalmining union, the predecessor to the CFMEU. I've dealt with them, as a manager. Not only was I a member, as a coalface worker, underground, for three years, I also dealt with them later—and I enjoyed dealing with them, because they treated miners with respect back in the seventies and eighties. And I dealt with the CFMEU later, as a general manager, when they took over the coalmining union. But, sadly, today, many union bosses do not look after workers. Miners, I found, were great people—are great people—and I loved that work underground, but I have become disgusted with some union bosses in some very large companies. I'm very proud to support unions in this country. They're necessary. I'm very proud to support workers in this country; they are fabulous people—the salt of the earth. But I am disgusted with some union bosses in some large unions—not all; 'some'.

I have concerns particularly with the CFMMEU. The CFMEU was one of the founding donors of the GetUp organisation. Imagine that: the CFMEU at the time donated $1. 3 million to the foundation of GetUp. And what's GetUp's No. 1 project, their No. 1 campaign? To shut down the coal industry. So the CFMEU, supposedly representing miners, was paying GetUp to shut down the coal industry. I'm disgusted! They want to kill coal.

Then I became aware of the Hunter Valley CFMEU and what it was doing to miners, not for miners—working against miners. I've spoken about that for almost three years now—well, it is three years now. I introduced into the Senate in the previous parliament, and reintroduced, just last week, my bill for equal pay for equal work, because union bosses have done grubby deals with multinational labour hire companies—including an offshoot from the largest labour hire company, a foreign-owned multinational from Japan—that have gutted workers' pay in the Hunter Valley. Miners in casual employment are being paid 40 per cent less than miners in permanent work at the same mine, right beside each other, doing the same job with the same responsibilities—paid 40 per cent less, thanks to union bosses agreeing to enterprise agreements that do not favour the miners.

Miners have lost their basic leave entitlements and basic protections. We know of miners who've been almost killed and have been totally and permanently incapacitated—disabled. They've no workers' compensation—none. And the CFMEU in the Hunter Valley knew about it. I know that the CFMEU in the mining industry and the CFMEU in the construction side merged. Then I think they split apart again very quickly because they couldn't see eye to eye with each other. Safety has been neglected; pay has been neglected; leave has been neglected; basic entitlements have been neglected—and not only neglected but exploited and stolen from these workers. The Labor Party neglected them for many, many years. It wasn't until I came along that we pushed their case. And we have had some wins for those miners. But I was staggered that the CFMMEU, which used to protect miners in the eighties, is now exploiting miners.

Then we saw construction workers in Melbourne attack John Setka and the other union bosses in the CFMMEU construction division in Melbourne late last year because they didn't stand up for workers who were being mandated with an unproven injection. Then we saw the Heydon royal commission, around 2014 or 2015, come up with all those comments about the thugs operating at the senior levels of the CFMEU construction division.

Unions were formed, back in the late 19th century, to protect workers' pay rates, security, seniority, safety, retirement, benefits, entitlements and protections. And they were absolutely necessary. One of the things that has destroyed some unions is that they have become monopolies, and when you have a monopoly you have people not willing to face up to competition. They no longer have to provide a service that's competitive.

I'll take you back to my experience as a general manager in Central Queensland, dealing with a CFMEU vice-president, Jim Lambley. We were negotiating, and eventually agreed on, a landmark business enterprise award—the first of its kind in the coal industry, the first radically different. We protected workers with that because we lined up what workers wanted and what shareholders wanted. We had a fabulous agreement. We had the lowest turnover of any mine in Central Queensland at the time. We weren't paying excessively or less; we were paying what was about typical of the industry in Central Queensland but we had the lowest turnover, one per cent, despite vigorous recruiting of our miners from other competitors. Why? Because we had that agreement in the interests of the workers and the shareholders. Both are needed to provide security and performance for a business and for ongoing employment. We also had the best safety performance of any large underground coalmine in the country, way ahead of any other mine in the country, because we worked with miners as managers. It is no longer; as Jim Lambley told me back then—this was back in the nineties—the CFMEU had lost sight of the workers and the CFMEU needed to get back to providing a service.

But it does haven't to provide a service when it's a monopoly. That's what is hurting workers in this country. Workers are being shafted because union bosses in some large organisations, including the CFMMEU, are looking after their own interests. They're feathering their own nests, they have political ambitions and they have control of money and control of a whole industry sector. We know that's what's going on with the Construction Division of the CFMMEU, and it is disgusting.

I've been told by miners in the CFMMEU and I've been told by construction workers in the CFMMEU that they are tired of giving their money to the union to give to the Labor Party, because the Labor Party doesn't stand for workers anymore. The CFMMEU doesn't stand for workers anymore. The CFMMEU stands for control. The Labor Party has lost sight of workers. The Labor Party is against workers. I had to beg and plead with the Labor Party in the Hunter Valley and all they did was misrepresent what I was doing. But we persisted and persisted. They weren't interested in supporting the workers. I look across at Senator Sterle, and I'm in admiration of his genuine concern for workers, his genuine service to workers and his genuine support for workers—I really am. Senator Sheldon and the late Alex Gallacher: impressive people, doing their job. But some other unions are not doing theirs.

The problem is that we have found unions were formed to protect workers but they've lost sight of it because they're monopolies—no competition, no accountability—and so we have exploitation of the people they're supposed to protect, their members. I'm very strongly in support of unions and union members, and very strongly in support of workers, whether or not they're union members. But I'm against thugs that run intimidation rackets and control rackets, and that's why we need the ABCC to remain.

I point again to the Labor Party's lack of consultation on this topic. They just abolished it, with minimum consultation. I've listened to small companies in the construction field and I've listened to workers in the construction field, and they don't want to go back to the lawless jungle. They do not want that, they want protections and some security. I serve the people of Queensland and Australia, and thousands of workers all over this country. That's who I serve, and that's why I want to retain the ABCC.