James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

And that, as my colleague Senator Henderson has confirmed with her helpful contribution, is what John Setka, the thug of all thugs, has confirmed—we talk about first among equals; he is the thug among equals, the first thug I suppose—in relation to what he wants to see out of this Labor Government, and that is a return on his investment.

This is not for the interest of Australians. This is not for the interest of business owners and those who run businesses. This is all about the union movement. That is sad. Look at what is facing Australia at the moment. We are looking at a growing unemployment rate. We are looking at a growing inflation rate. We are looking at mortgage rates going up. This has all happened since May, by the way, for those who may be listening. It's all happened since the election of this Labor government because we all know that Labor will always cost you more. Labor is effectively bringing in a de facto federal payroll tax, because what it is saying to small businesses across Australia is that they have to pay anywhere between $14,000 or $15,000 and $80,000 to participate in relation to the provisions under this bill.

What the Rhodes scholars opposite don't realise is that when you're a small-business owner you depend on the income from selling goods and services, but you also have your costs. If your costs are going to go up in one of your columns—for example, suddenly you've got to pay $70,000 or $80,000 to participate in negotiating wages and salaries for your employees because you're compelled to because you have union thugs on your doorstep—that means you actually, irony upon ironies, which the Rhodes scholar runners up over there don't realise, won't be able to afford to give people the pay rises that you want to give to them.

The money will go into this great big black pot, this vortex. But the people who the left claim they want to stand up for and claim to represent are actually going to lose out under the provisions of this bill. It is very sad that the Mensa society members over there don't realise that because, and I cannot emphasise this enough, this is not about giving Australians higher wages and higher salaries. This bill is not about that. This bill is about empowering the union movement.

When you look at what has happened to the union movement in Queensland and Australia—I am a senator from Queensland—the Labor Party came out of the shearers' strike in western Queensland in the 1890s. You sometimes wonder what those genuine workers, those shearers, who wanted to have a political movement, would think about when they look at the modern Labor Party. Would they go: 'Really? Is this the movement that is supposed to represent working Australians today?' Of course it doesn't, because the Labor Party and the union movement's support for working-class Australians has disintegrated. They've been captured by the wokers. They've been captured by the trendy-dendies who like to live in the city and like to ride their bikes everywhere and claim to be all for public transport. They fail to understand that the reason that union membership in Australia has declined over the last 30 or 40 years from the 50, 60, 70 per cent of Australians who used to be members of unions is the failure of the union movement to stand up for working Australians.

I heard my colleague say earlier today that the union membership at the moment is at about 14 per cent of the workforce. I actually thought it was a little bit lower. I think that within the private sector it's about 10 per cent. I think the 14 per cent takes into account those who are in the public sector. In the private sector—in small businesses, in medium businesses and in large businesses—only one in 10 Australians are members of a union. The other way of putting it is that 90 per cent of working Australians are not members of a union, yet we have this bill in front of us which is all about empowering union bosses and trying to arrest the decline of union membership. It's all about trying to ensure that union bosses can turn up on a small business's doorstep and force, threaten, cajole and bully workers to try and join a union. It is sad that one of the so-called key accomplishments of this government, in the six months that they've been in power, is going to be a bill that actually does nothing to increase the salaries and wages of working Australians, but instead increases the power of the union bosses.

You should always look at what people say and then what they do. What is interesting is that when the Labor Party went to the election, this was very much a secret deal between the union movement and the Labor Party. Why I say that is that no-one knew about it. This was a secret deal that was locked away. It was clearly nutted out and probably signed with a handshake. I don't know, perhaps it was a spit in the hand type of handshake or a wink across the room between the Prime Minister and the union bosses to say that if you help us get elected we will repay the favour. We will repay the favour by bringing in pieces of legislation that will help the union movement.

My opening comments about the National Anti-Corruption Commission weren't said in jest. They were actually quite serious. If there was a secret deal between the Labor Party and the union movement—in terms of cash for policy, campaign funds for policy, campaign funds for legislation—it's something that we should know. It is something that should have been put on the table before the election. It wasn't. It was secret. Therefore, what else is in this deal between the Labor Party and the union movement? What else is there?

We can talk about what the Labor Party are going to do, for example, in relation to electoral reform. We all know that the Labor Party depend on the union movement, so they're going to bring forward reforms that will put a cap on expenditure. They are gong to bring in a financial gerrymander—the Queensland model. They'll bring that in here federally. It will effectively remove the fairness that exists between political parties at a federal level, between those on the Left and the Right, and ensure that there is a financial gerrymander that favours the parties on the Left. You can only look at Queensland where political parties are capped at $15 million each for their electoral expenditure but unions are capped at $10 million. There are 26 unions in Queensland. Twenty-six times 10 is 260. So unions can spend $260 million in an election in Queensland, plus the Labor Party's $15 million. The LNP, my party, the party of the grassroots, will be out spent 20 to one. That is not fair. Whatever your views may be of the left and right of politics, we should all believe that there should be a fairness between the left and the right in terms of how they participate or are stopped from participating, how they are encouraged to participate in Australia's democracy.

What we are seeing here is what happened in Queensland, the financial gerrymander that effectively locks the LNP out, is that Labor through this bill is ensuring that come the next federal election they will be able to go to their union bosses and say, 'We delivered this piece of legislation; we helped entrench and empower union bosses'—not unions, but union bosses—'in Australia's industrial and political system; therefore we need you to make sure that you come out under the changes that we've made to election expenditure rules at a federal level and campaign vigorously against the election of the Liberal National Party.'

That is why this is of most concern. This bill is not about helping working Australians. This bill is not about helping small businesses. This bill is cash for policy at its most base. It is bordering on corruption in terms of the payback between the Labor Party and the union movement. This bill was not taken to the election. This bill was a secret deal between the Labor Party and the union movement, not to assist working-class Australians. It was all about helping the union movement.

I say to those business organisations, let this be a lesson to you. You thought you could sit down and deal with this Labor Party, and this shows that the Labor Party played you. This shows that for those of you who went along to that summit—by the way, they had a band that summit they had here a couple of months ago, and they paid $7,000. The Labor party used taxpayers' money to pay for a band that cost $7,000—good on the band, we all love live music—at a summit talking about how the Labor party can entrench itself in power. These business organisations went along and sat there and nodded their heads and said, 'Yes, we can do a deal, we will work together, let's go back to the Keating-Hawke tripartite arrangement.' Of course that didn't happen. The Labor Party and the union movement took you like a hot dinner and are still eating you up and asking for seconds.

So I say to those acronyms out there who represent businesses across Australia, stand up. Stop your wittering and whingeing. Stop your complaining. Stand up and join the fight against this Labor Party. What is happening this week in the six months of this government shows overreach. The overreach that normally happens in the third or fourth term of the government is happening at six months. So just imagine what is going to happen in the New Year. So join the fight and stand up for small businesses.