Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, experienced union delegates admitted the Albanese government's union-inspired industrial relations legislation will likely increase membership. In South Australia, my home state, yesterday an Adelaide tram rolled past completely wrapped in a CFMMEU slogan—'a union of opportunity'. The membership drive has already begun.

Yes, the unions know the significant change to Australia's industrial relations system is a gift because they imagined it and developed it, and the Albanese government, with the support of Senator David Pocock, will likely deliver it. It is bad for business and bad for workers, with no evidence it will result in higher wages or increased productivity. That matters to South Australia, where the construction industry is a major employer of nearly 75,000 people—equivalent to 8.6 per cent of the total workforce—and contributes $8 billion to gross state product in 2020-21. Adelaide property developers are currently reconsidering large-scale projects, and there's already been picketing of construction sites outlawed under the current legislation. In SA the CFMMEU is the subject of eight new investigations, and the ABCC has issued $1.2 million in penalties in South Australia since 2016.

Trade union membership Australia-wide has been in decline for decades and stands at 14 per cent nationally and in South Australia. Labor governments say they stand for regulation, transparency and women but not, it seems, when it relates to paymasters. During the SA state election the state Labor Party accepted, and then later returned, a CFMMEU donation of some $125,000. In the Senate committee, a union aligned organisation told us it draws the line on accepting donations from the CFMMEU because of its treatment of women. That's a shame for all of us.