Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens oppose the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Withdrawal from Amalgamation) Bill 2024. I note that, when this was debated in the House of Representatives, Liberal MP after Liberal MP rose in that place and enthusiastically supported the legislation, and while, of course, a minister had to have carriage of the bill, almost no Labor MPs stood up in there and spoke to this legislation. The Australian Greens say to the Labor Party, 'That fact alone should give you pause for thought and should encourage you to reconsider what you are proposing to do with this legislation.'

When you look at the speaking list in this place for this legislation, you see one Labor senator on the speaking list: Minister Watt. You see one person from the Australian Greens—that is me—putting our position of opposition on the record. The rest of the people on the speaking list are Senator O'Sullivan, Senator Lambie, Senator Scarr, Senator McKenzie, Senator Duniam, Senator McGrath, Senator Brockman and Senator Liddle. Again, we're going to see Liberal senator after Liberal senator—opposition senator after opposition senator—rise and enthusiastically support this legislation. This should give the government pause, but it won't. The reason it should give the government pause is that that mob over there are no friends of the union movement. They are no friends of the working people in this country. The Liberal Party has a long history of union busting and concocting labour-market reforms, or so-called reforms, that undermine the rights of working Australians. They've got a reputation—well deserved—of doing the bidding of big corporations and employers.

Let's have a look at some of the relatively recent history in this policy area: Work Choices—who can forget Work Choices?—disastrous industrial relations changes brought in by the Howard government in 2005 that smashed the rights of working Australians. More than a million Australians on awards suffered a real pay cut of nearly $100 a week because of changes to the way minimum wages were set up under Work Choices, delivered by a Liberal-National Party government that had the numbers in both chambers in that parliament.

Let's look at something else: creating the Australian Building and Construction Commission. This was effectively a construction industrial police force, a union-bashing exercise that undermined the basic rights of construction workers to be treated equally under the law. The ABCC failed to act as an independent regulator committed to the best interests of the construction industry, the conditions of workers and the legitimate needs of employers. Under ABCC rules, construction workers had their right to silence undermined. Workers were forced to name names under those rules. It undermined the rule of law, particularly the principle that the law is applied equally and the principle of the presumption of innocence. And let's not forget former prime minister Tony Abbott's royal commission witch hunt into the unions—a witch hunt that was determined to weaken the labour movement in this country.

So, the Liberal Party has a demonstrated track record of throwing workers under a bus. The fact that they are going to so enthusiastically support this legislation should give pause to the Australian Labor Party. I mean, look who you are going to be voting with when the bells stop ringing. You're going to park your backsides on the same side of the chamber as the mob who are now in opposition, who've built political careers and an entire movement on throwing workers under a bus. The Liberals push for higher unemployment, they push for lower wages and they will take every opportunity to weaken the union movement—all in the service, of course, of big business and their corporate donors.

To think that the Liberals have suddenly changed their tune and are deciding to take a position that would be positive for workers in Australia is naive at best; 'stupid' would be a more accurate description. I have no doubt that this debate in the Senate today, up until its conclusion, will reflect the debate in the House of Representatives, where Liberal MP after Liberal MP—in the case of this place, Liberal senator after Liberal senator—is going to get up and explain why they think this is a terrific piece of legislation. Well, that should give the Australian Labor Party pause. The government should be seriously questioning how they're going to end up sitting on the same side of the chamber as a mob that has a demonstrated track record of smashing the union movement and throwing workers under a bus in the interests of increasing corporate profits.

Labor is defending this bill by saying the changes will impact only one union. If that's the case, we have a question: why are the Liberals so thrilled with this change? The answer to that question of course is: because it sets a precedent; it opens the door for yet more coalition-era anti-union reforms. As the National Secretary of the CFMEU, Mr Zach Smith, pointed out:

This bill risks setting a dangerous precedent for anti-worker ideologues in future coalition governments to break up unions.

Unions are a critical part of our society. Time won't permit me to run through all the amazing things workers collectively have achieved through their unions and the broader union movement throughout Australia's postcolonial history. But, in overview, they fight hard for fair pay, they fight hard for safe working conditions and they also make critically important contributions to our democracy. They've been pivotal in achieving so many of the things that we take for granted today: paid leave, public holidays, Medicare, superannuation, workplace health and safety, maternity leave, the eight-hour working day, minimum wage—as I said, time prevents me from listing all of the achievements.

I also note that unions have been pivotal in the battle to save built heritage in Australia and also to save green spaces, particularly in urban areas in our country, from the relentless march of developers. I do note that the green bans that were put in place by a part of the union movement so many decades ago were instrumental in the naming of the German Greens at the time when Petra Kelly, then leader of the German political environment movement, came out to Australia.

The Greens have a straightforward and very principled position on this legislation. We are not going to support this legislation. We're going to stand with working Australians, and we're going to support unions that in turn support the rights of working Australians. That's why we opposed things like the ABCC, that's why we voted against Work Choices, that's why we were so critical of the royal commission into unions, and that is why we're going to oppose this legislation today.

We're not convinced that this legislation is not designed to fragment the union movement and dilute the power of workers to organise, stand up for themselves and take collective action. We are not convinced that this bill will not weaken the union movement, and we have concerns that any bill that weakens the union movement and therefore weakens the power of workers will ultimately lead to lower wages, to more unsafe working conditions and to a lack of ability for working people to take collective action in this place.

The Greens say to the Labor Party here today: the enthusiastic support from the Liberal Party for this motion should be a canary in the coalmine. It should be a giant red flag to the Australian Labor Party. I ask again the simple question: if you're bringing in industrial relations legislation that is supported by the coalition, who have built their political brand on smashing workers and have a demonstrated track record of throwing workers under a bus, are you really sure you are doing the right thing? That's the question for the Labor Party here.

Senator Scarr might be uncomfortable with the way I've described the Liberal Party, but history speaks for itself. We will never forget Work Choices, Senator Scarr. We will never forget the Australian Building and Construction Commission. We will never forget Tony Abbott's witch-hunt of a royal commission into the union movement. We know this mob over here. We know what their track record is in supporting working Australians, and that is that they don't have one. They don't have one because, when push comes to shove, they will do everything they can to drive wages down.

I well remember—and I'm sure Senator Scarr does as well—the admission from former senator Cormann that low wages were a feature of the industrial relations system designed by the coalition when they sat on the Treasury benches. I well remember that admission from Senator Cormann when he said the quiet thing out loud. He said the quiet thing out loud one day, and we will never forget that. The opposition has a shameful track record of doing over workers in this country. They do that because they are being manipulated. They exist to deliver for the big corporations in this country. That is the modus operandi of the mob that find themselves on the opposition benches. They have a demonstrated track record of throwing working people under the bus at every opportunity. They don't want to see high wages; they want to see low wages. Former senator Corman admitted it on the record and he said the quiet thing out loud. He was being truthful and honest. It is about time this mob here today were truthful and honest as well. They want low wages. That's why they don't support the union movement.

So to the Australian Labor Party I say—