Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also rise to discuss a matter of public interest. I noted with interest a few weeks ago a number of media reports in which the Vice President and National Secretary of the Transport Workers Union, Tony Sheldon, stated that the ALP was facing a moral crisis. I will not go through everything he said, but some quotes by Sheldon as reported in an article in the Australian on 2 February 2013 include:

Our crisis is more than just a crisis of trust brought on by the corrupt behaviour of property scammers and lobbyists … It's a crisis of belief brought on by a lack of moral and political purpose.

… … …

Our party is in a very serious and potentially catastrophic situation.

… … …

The headlines about corruption emanating from ICAC and the HSU scandal must shame us all into action …

… … …

… the full force of the law should be levelled against all those who have operated in an illegal and unethical manner.

… … …

I struggle to see what else but fading Labor values can account for the inexplicable decisions that sometimes come from Canberra …

… … …

… the toxic lack of trust that has poisoned our movement in recent times …

Tony Sheldon is 100 per cent right. The ALP and the union movement are in a moral and political crisis and cannot be trusted—whether it is Obeid, Thomson, Macdonald or the Prime Minister's broken promise in relation to the surplus et cetera, et cetera.

However, what Tony Sheldon said is breathtakingly hypocritical, given that what he said could equally apply to himself and given past allegations about his actions, moral compass and trustworthiness. Tony Sheldon has cried crocodile tears for the future of the ALP, but this is the man who has exhibited throughout his entire life in the union movement the same 'illegal and unethical behaviour' to secure his position within that movement. In the finest traditions of the New South Wales Labor Right, personified by Graham Richardson and Laurie Brereton, Mr Sheldon is simply no better than those who came before him or those he now criticises.

I want to look at some of these allegations against Mr Sheldon, in relation to both his role as TWU secretary and before that. The first is ballot rigging in the 1980s. In an article entitled 'Truckies' mate bails out' in the Australian on 6 December 2008, Brad Norington wrote about 'one time union star Tony Sheldon and his fall from grace' and reported:

Soon after losing to Robertson—

that is the infamous John Robertson—

Sheldon's union was caught out, gotcha-style, as video surveillance by private detectives showed his chief political operative Scott Connelly helping a campaign to unseat the NSW leader of the Australian Workers Union, Russ Collison.

In a letter to the Industrial Registrar, Collison lashed out. He challenged Sheldon's fitness to hold elected office because of a past conviction over ballot rigging, attaching parts of a 1990 report by Commissioner Marshall Cooke that referred to it after an investigation into elections of the Liquor Trades Union in Queensland, where Sheldon had been briefly an official.

In the article, Sheldon stated: 'No conviction was entered, to my recollection.' However, a report by Commissioner NM Cooke dated 1990 found ballot rigging by Sheldon in the Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees union of Australia, Queensland Branch Union of Employees. In relation to 1986 ballot rigging, Tony Sheldon was:

… CONVICTED under s 171(1)(h) of Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 … [of] obtaining or having in his possession a ballot paper, on 27 July 1990. Discharged on good behaviour bond of $200 for nine months.

The commissioner said:

… the recorded convictions for relatively minor offences do not reflect the extent of ballot paper fraud revealed by this report.

So much for Mr Sheldon's statements in relation to this matter; perhaps it was a convenient lapse of memory.

I now want to turn to an allegation the TWU extracted funds from employers that were hidden in a special fund and used without the knowledge of their members. As reported in an article titled, 'Union's secret deal cost workers' in the Australian on 24 September 2007, the TWU allegedly:

… extracted millions of dollars from employers that have been hidden in a special fund and then used without the knowledge of its members.

This alleged slush fund was set up in 1998 by Tony Sheldon himself. The article states that the TWU allegedly did:

"side deals" with many employers of its members in which company money has been paid to a union "training fund"—possibly at a cost of discounting workers' wages.

According to one agreement …labour hire firm Blue Collar agreed as part of an enterprise bargain to pay the TWU 1 per cent of the total payroll for the union's members employed at Qantas in Sydney.

Angry former TWU delegates from Qantas told the program workers were never told that their union's leadership had signed a side deal with payment into the union's "Industrial Rights and Training Fund".

They said the deal—personally signed off by TWU state secretary Tony Sheldon—was made at the same time Blue Collar employees stood to suffer a 30 per cent pay cut.

The Sunday program on 23 September 2007 further noted: 'Officials from within Sheldon's own circle raised their concerns about a shadowy fund the union had operated for over a decade. The lack of transparency is making some union staff question if industrial peace has been put up for sale.' As I said, those are contributions to the TWU's Industrial Rights and Training Fund, set up by Tony Sheldon, made at the cost of a discount to the workers pay rise.

On 27 September 2007, in an interview with Alan Jones, Sheldon stated, 'I do take full responsibility for the fund and the view of setting this fund up.' What is more, in relation to the training fund, it was already controversial back in 2002 when an article in the Weekend Australian dated 5 January 2002 stated, 'Members of the Transport Workers Union in New South Wales have taken strike action to force large employers to make payments in a "training, education and industrial rights fund" run by the union.' Despite this, Tony Sheldon continued with the fund and saw it grow to over $2 million by 2005 and more after that.

In a case of more good luck than good management, Tony Sheldon has personally remained reasonably unscathed by these allegations, but it was reported in the Australian on 6 December 2008 that a Deloitte consultancy report found that the TWU fund had no governance arrangements or financial management processes. It stated:

Sheldon never established a fund board or council with company representation that was distinct from the TWU, despite wage agreements saying explicitly that this would happen.

He did not separate the training fund from the TWU's general ledger. He did not separately audit the activities of the fund. And the definition of how it could be spent was very broad. … It is also not clear whether all TWU members knew about the fund's existence, until a union resolution last year.

I now want to refer to the improper TWU payments in 2007 that were then paid. In an article entitled 'TWU audit reveals payments to politicians' in the Daily Telegraph on 13 October 2007, it was reported that an internal TWU audit 'identified $9,800 that may have been donated to ALP candidates improperly'. The beneficiaries of this included former 'Heffron MP and ageing minister Kristina Keneally and former minister Di Beamer'. Other beneficiaries included 'Wollongong MP Noreen MP and the Barton State Electorate Council'. The article reports that 'all repaid the money in the full and the union has also issued a recall on any other money paid to political parties or candidates from the fund'. But the TWU management under Tony Sheldon should never have allowed these payments in the first place. I proffer an opinion that had it not been for this internal audit then these moneys would have remained with those as originally planned.

In conclusion, Tony Sheldon is right about the unethical behaviour occurring within the Australian Labor Party and the union movement. However, it is quite remarkable for him to go out and draw attention to the moral crisis within the Australian Labor Party and the union movement given that it could be said that he is no better than the rest of the pack. This just goes to show the utter hypocrisy, dysfunction and disarray in the Australian Labor Party and the union movement.

It is no surprise and no wonder that it is in such disarray when Australian Labor Party ministers such as Bill Shorten align themselves with militant unions such as the Maritime Union of Australia. That is quite remarkable. In an article in the Australian today entitled 'Bill Shorten sides with union militants', there is this quote:

A day after the union's West Australian secretary Chris Cain told delegates 'laws need to be broken, you're going to get locked up'—

Mr Shorten attended a conference in support of the union, stating:

I wish we could bottle a bit of the spirit here and spread it on perhaps some of the members in the Labor caucus …

Spreading a bit of law-breaking spirit to the Labor caucus is just what the Labor Party needs now—I don't think. As was reported in the article, my colleague Eric Abetz said:

Mr Rudd had tried to 'modernise' the ALP, while the Prime Minister and Mr Shorten were more interested in paying 'sycophantic homage to trade union bosses'.

Minister Shorten is presenting himself as the minister for union bosses as opposed to the minister for workers.

It is time that the Labor government addressed the widespread irregularities within the union movement as opposed to sweeping them under the rug. However, the Australian Labor Party is not taking action and its ministers, like Minister Shorten, continue to support militant unions and union heavies who are breaking the law. This support continues despite continuous allegations of corruption within the union movement, including more recent reports of the CFMEU Drug and Alcohol Foundation diverting money, reports of the ETU diverting money to a union boss and reports of Prime Minister Julia Gillard attending a fundraiser in Melbourne for yet another AWU slush fund.

Where are the union officials clamping down on this culture? Where are the Australian Labor Party members in this place and elsewhere standing against this culture as opposed to paying homage to the unions? It is all well and good to opine about the lack of moral and political purpose in the Australian Labor Party. But where is the move for change within the union movement? I will end with comments by Tony Sheldon. In media comments, he said, 'This is a time for new blood and fresh contributions.' But the new blood and the fresh contributions are not to be found within the Australian Labor Party. Quite frankly, it is time for a change of government. That change cannot come soon enough.

Enough of the crocodile tears from people like Tony Sheldon and enough of the so-called moral judgements about what has been done in the past. How about some real action? Crocodile tears are not going to address the complete and utter dysfunctionality of the union movement, who are now aided and abetted by a government minister who was calling on his own Labor members to take militant action and to use illegal means of defending a position or putting it. The time has well and truly come.