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

Trust has been lost. Anthony Albanese and his Labor government have lost the people's trust, lost the people's confidence, lost the people's support. Labor supports the CFMEU because the CFMEU gives it massive donations—millions and millions of cash for election campaigns. Labor is wedded to the CFMEU. Labor is dependent on the CFMEU.

Labor is hiding the biggest wage theft in Australia's history. Five years I've spent exposing the scam. We have an excellent independent report, Coalminers wage theft, done in February this year. It vindicates what I've been pushing for five years. Some miners in Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley are owed $41,000 per annum in wage theft. The Independent Workers Union, a new, fair-dinkum union operating in Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley, has lodged complaints for many miners because the CFMEU and the Mining and Energy Union have not bothered to do so. They won't go after the back pay of the wage theft.

I'm aware of a complaint lodged just recently, in the last couple of days, to the Fair Work Ombudsman by the Independent Workers Union, seeking, for one person alone, $211,000 in back pay—$211,000 in wage theft that this Labor government condones and hides. The CFMEU drove the theft of wages from Central Queensland and Hunter miners. The workers' former protectors in the CFMEU are now their exploiters. They're hurting workers. I wonder: will Labor's administrator allocate the CFMEU funds to make good the miners' wages? For one person it's $211,000; there are over 5,000 miners losing up to or around $41,000 per year of service.

Labor MPs are complicit because there has been a protection racket for their mates in the CFMEU. Labor MPs in the Hunter denied and then ignored my claims—my claims put to them in writing. I hand-delivered, to Dan Repacholi's office here in parliament, my letter to him explaining this. Not a peep! Instead, we got lies from Mr Repacholi in the Hunter, and similar from Joel Fitzgibbon. Minister Watt in the Senate has denigrated, ridiculed and dismissed more than 5,000 miners' legal improvement entitlements. And I have been proven correct.

Let's return to Monday and Minister Gallagher's word, 'urgent'. 'This is urgent,' she said, as to the administrator for the CFMEU. I add two words: 'cover up'. It's a cover-up. Minister Gallagher says Labor's administrator is 'urgent', yet Minister Watt dropped this bill on us late on Monday night. What gives? Do you expect us to believe that it was drafted on Sunday—that they did an all-nighter in the department on Sunday with lots of coffee? Why did Labor drop it on us without giving it to us earlier? Is it to avoid scrutiny? Yes—I can see some senators agreeing. When did the Greens and the teal Senator Pocock get copies? We've had instances in the past where they have got copies of new bills two weeks before we have and they've been dropped on us at the last minute.

Then Senator Gallagher sought exemption from the normal bills process. Speaking of exemption, Senator Gallagher said, 'The Albanese government says it's a clear path.' Yet the bill is littered with the word 'may'. It's a very unclear bill. It needs the word 'will'. Secondly, she said, 'The people of Australia are expecting a clear response.' With an unclear bill? I echo Senator O'Sullivan's call for a hearing. Then Senator Gallagher said, 'We will give you a firm view at the end of the week.' You will only get a firm view with a hearing. We need a firm view and scrutiny of this legislation. We need 'may' to be replaced by 'will' quite often. We need an opportunity for bipartisan input.

I'm a former member of three unions. I know genuine unions are necessary. The genuine union movement has a long and proud history, going back to Wales and the lodge system in the Miners Federation, which I was a proud member and participant of. Yet today so many union bosses have forgot their workers and members. Why? Today workers' protections are enshrined in law—as they should be—including safety, wages, conditions, security, retirement, health and many other provisions. Now the union bosses erode and steal these for personal gain, as the CFMEU and the Mining and Energy Union have done in Central Queensland and the Hunter. Personal gain and power, that's what it's about now, not looking after members. Why? Because they're an untouchable monopoly. Workers need choice. Workers don't have choice. They must join the union in their industry. That's it. There's no choice. The Red Union in Queensland and around Australia and in New Zealand is giving workers choice.

Thirdly, the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman have failed to protect miners and workers. The Fair Work Commission has overseen and approved the theft of wages from casual coalminers in the Hunter Valley. As a boy, I lived in Central Queensland and the Hunter coalfields. My dad was in coalmining. I graduated with a mining engineers degree, an honours degree, and then decided I'd better go and learn something, so I worked at the coalface.

I came across Bill Chapman, the legendary president of the Northern District Miners Federation. He was a wonderful man. I sided with him in an open-air meeting when I worked at Westfalen's No. 2 mine when I worked on the night shift there. My dad was complimented, highly, by Bill Chapman at my father's retirement. My dad and Bill used to argue a lot, but they respected each other, because Bill was genuinely concerned about workers. I knew Mattie Best before he died. I worked with him. I played football with him. He was my football coach in Central Queensland when I played rugby league. He was a genuine union delegate who had respect from workers and management and fellow union bosses. He called out safety issues when they were abused.

I am proud to support real unions that work in workers' interests. I worked as a mine manager with the CFMEU union bosses. We developed a landmark award that I instigated, and I instigated many previously undreamt-of provisions because they were to the benefit of the workers and productivity. I worked with the union.

The rank and file in the CFMEU in Victoria during the COVID mismanagement erupted in a mutiny against vaccine mandates and lockdowns. The members realised their union bosses did not care, and they revolted. Labor then abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Senator Watt said, 'Australians expected parliament to deal with criminal allegations inside the recalcitrant union promptly.' How, looking at this vague bill? Where is the trust? It's been smashed. Labor supports the CFMEU because of donations; Labor is wedded to the CFMEU because it's dependent on donations.

Yesterday we heard Senator Pocock, a teal senator, say: 'We need to be cleaning up the union.' Has he forgotten that he supported the abolition of the ABCC? The CFMEU has assisted in theft from miners, as I've explained. They're now exploiting miners. The Labor Party has been complicit. Both Joel Fitzgibbon and Dan Repacholi reportedly get campaign donations from the CFMEU. Then we get Labor's fabrication.