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

This is all about the unions, as Senator Scarr has pointed out. This is all about the unions, which are dying as industrial relations organisations but are living quite well as campaigning organisations. This gives them the opportunity to try to sign up members. Less than one in 10 Australians who are in the workforce are members of a union. Why is that? Because unions are as outdated as flares; they really aren't relevant in the modern Australian workplace. This bill makes a mockery of the employee-employer relationship. I flew to Canberra on Sunday, funnily enough from Cairns, Senator Scarr. I came down here to daylight savings. I thought I would be gaining an hour because of daylight savings time, but I've gone back 50 years. I've gone back to flares. We've gone back to the union movement and the union power bosses.