Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm all cool. I'm having a ball. I actually ran my own business. This is what irks me when I hear ideology and ridiculous statements from people who have no idea of the background of others in this chamber. I, for one, can talk with the authority. I left school early. I ran my own business. My wife and I put our necks on the line with one month's payment and a house to hock everything we had to buy our first truck. Six trucks later and I'm proud as punch that we did that. I couldn't have done it without my wife, and I couldn't have done it without the drive that I had. To be accused of not knowing business really gets up my nose.

Senator Van, in the first speech to this motion, came out and said that this is all about ideology. He said it has nothing to do with providing an opportunity for lower paid workers to get a decent pay packet and negotiate decent contracts. This is what really, really annoys me—I speak to this from authority—when we look at the likes of the bed wetters and the ones who are running around this country screaming out that the last thing that we should be doing is pushing to change industrial relations laws so that those who can't bargain collectively could actually have a chance to increase their pay packet and their working conditions.

And who is this charge led by? It is the usual suspects, starting with ACCI. I'd be so sad if ACCI went missing because I'd think something had gone wrong and that they actually had some brains in that outfit. The Business Council of Australia is another, as is AMMA—if AMMA didn't start the fight, there's really something going on. Guess who started the fight? AMMA. And guess who else bought into it? None other than Mr Alan Joyce and Qantas. Senator Sheldon, you've got a massive pair of shoes to fill. I can't fill them when you're talking about how bad an employer Qantas has become under Mr Joyce's tenure, but I'll give it a good shoot. Here we have a man who has his footprints etched into the blue carpet in this joint. He ran to the previous government's ministers, seeking support to give him money to give to his employees. Was it Work Choices?—I'm having a real nightmare today! It was through JobKeeper. That was nearly a billion dollars, and what did it deliver? I'll tell you what it delivered: it kept Mr Alan Joyce and Qantas going—ably backed by Mr Richard Goyder AO, with his $560,000 sitting fee and God knows whatever else as the chairman, so he could go out in the middle of the night and sack nearly 2,000 baggage handlers.

Then I read in the paper today not only the fine comments from my colleague and mate over here to my right, Senator Sheldon, but that Qantas have to upgrade their profit margin now. We've only been out of COVID for seven or eight months or something, but they made a mistake: they have to up it by another $150 million. While Qantas are gouging the travellers of this nation, they're now saying that they're back in the red—anywhere between $1.4 billion and $1.5 billion. I say to everyone in Australia: who thinks that Mr Alan Joyce has run a magnificent business since he's been in charge?

I can tell you now—and I look at my colleagues around this chamber from all sides—that we spent more time on his planes than anyone. I had no problem for many, many years as a Transport Workers Union organiser, after I sold my truck and after doing two years nonstop in Darwin, with two babies at home that I never got to see. I missed my daughter first walking and talking, and I wasn't going to miss more time with my six-year-old son. So I came off the road. The TWU gave me an opportunity because—guess what?—I actually know things about trucks, I actually can put two words together and I actually can talk to employers and employees. I want nothing more than employers and employees working together to deliver magnificent outcomes for both. Without a successful business, you don't have the opportunity to provide an appropriate wage for your employees, who I was so proud to have join me in my union so that we could collectively bargain. I have the greatest of respect for them, but I have absolutely no respect for Alan Joyce.

If you fly in this nation, you could be gouged, lose your baggage or be lied to whilst you're sitting on the tarmac. And then they're blaming baggage handlers, an explanation which I copped this morning, and there wasn't even any baggage being put on. This is what really irks me.