Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

This bill enables the manufacturing division of the CFMEU, which includes the Textile, Clothing & Footwear workers, timber workers and furniture workers, to hold a secret ballot to demerge from the Construction Forestry & Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU).

Just two weeks ago, the amendments in this bill were moved as amendments to the Government's Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Bill 2023.

Just two weeks ago, the Greens and the government voted together to block the amendment and deprive these union workers of the opportunity to have a say in their future.

The Textile Clothing Footwear sector (TCF Sector) is currently part of the CFMEU.

The TCF Sector is the part of the CFMEU with the greatest number of women.

Many of these women are from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Many of them have had first-hand experience of exploitation, underpayment and unsafe conditions.

After the merger the TCF Sector moved into the CFMEU's offices.

One of the union secretaries told The Age newspaper about the first meeting with the CFMEU:

"It was a male-dominated space," she recalled.

But the Textile Clothing Footwear Union TCFU had merged with the CFMEU and that also meant sharing office space.

The Union rep told the paper that:

"Within the building there were jokes about domestic violence. It was very uncomfortable to the point where our division had to leave the building."

To say the CFMEU have had 'women problems' in the past in an understatement.

But I am not going to go on about that today.

Except to say that the past behaviour of the CFMEU and indeed the Builders Labourers Federation—the BLF—before that—really did and do give unions a bad name.

That's a shame, not just a shame about the behaviour—but a shame that is so often overshadows the good things the union movement has achieved for our country.

The first unions were formed by free workers—that is—not convicts—in Sydney and Hobart in the 1820s.

The earliest unions in Tasmania were organised by craft workers in the late 1820s.

Print workers', tailors', carpenters', bootmakers' and bakers' unions followed in the 1830s.

Early trade unions were working people who came together to support each other during illness, death and unemployment.

On 21 April 1856, stonemasons in Melbourne walked off the job in protest over their employers' refusal to accept their demands for reduced working hours.

It led to Australia becoming the first country in the world to have a mandated 8 hour work day.

But this only applied to a minority of workers—mainly those in the building trade.

Women became active in the union movement in the 1870s and often formed their own unions.

Most workers, including women and children, generally worked longer hours for less pay.

Working people and their unions kept fighting and, in 1916, the Eight Hours Act was passed in Victoria and New South Wales.

It would take another 32 years for the Commonwealth Arbitration Court to approve a 40-hour, five-day working week for all Australians.

But in the nineteenth century—Australia was a male-dominated society

Women weren't allowed to vote.

There were Jobs for the blokes—not so many for the sheilas.

Even if women could get a job—they weren't welcome in most workplaces.

Not that they didn't work at home—doing all the domestic stuff—but of course women still don't get paid for that!

Australia's first union for women, the Tailoresses' Association of Melbourne, was founded in 1882.

A year before Australia's first female student graduated from the University of Melbourne.

In 1883 these ladies went on strike, the Tailoresses' strike of 1883, to protest a reduction of wages and an end to 'sweatshop' hours.

These 200 brave women going out on strike was described by commentators at the time as being 'extraordinary' and 'sensational'.

Their strike resulted in changes to their working conditions—And it got the attention of a Royal Commission which ultimately led to the factory reform act.

The fight for women's working rights continued and kicked up a notch after WW2 when women took over jobs done by men who were now fighting overseas.

The ladies got a shock when they opened their pay packet and found it was less than the blokes.

The Victorian Trades Hall established a subcommittee for equal pay in 1943, taking up the long-standing demands of female-only unions.

Once the war ended, many women wanted to keep their jobs, and keep the pay they had fought for—the unions had to campaign for this issue well into the 1950s.

It wasn't until 1972 that women were granted equal pay for work of equal value.

Trade unions in the late 70s and early 80s were getting a bad reputation—and were often in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The Builders Labourers Federation was headed up by a very corrupt bloke called Norm Gallagher.

The unlawfulness of the BLF's relentless industry-wide intimidation, violence, extortion, sabotage and financially-damaging stoppages is widely documented.

Following a Royal Commission into the BLF's business affairs—the union was deregistered and Gallagher was convicted—amongst other things—of obtaining building materials to build himself a beach house!

While the bad boys of the Union movement did their best to overshadow the good parts of the union movement—the union movement itself was changing.

Yes, union membership was falling—not helped by Norm and his mates—but the unions that survived and grew were often dominated by women.

Nurses, teacher, aged care workers, textile workers, footwear workers—the modern Australian Unionist is more likely to be a woman.

According to the last census women make up a greater proportion of trade union membership (54%) than men (46%).

And yet and yet—a union mainly made up of women isn't allowed a secret ballot to take charge of their own union.

Why does it need to be secret—that's a good question.

And a depressing answer.

It's because they have been intimidated in the past.

The CFMEU doesn't want to let them go because they want their money.

So, let's review—a union with thousands of women, many of them from non-English speaking backgrounds, wants to be able to have a secret ballot to leave the CFMEU and take control themselves.

Who in here could in all conscience vote against these women?

I would like all of the Senators in here to go home and think deeply about this tonight.

If your party is telling you to vote against this amendment, I want you to think about how you will feel about betraying these women?

All the passionate speeches I have heard in this place about domestic violence.

All the speeches about how women should be empowered to take control of their own lives.

Did you mean them?

Will you stand by your words?

Will you stand by your principles?

Will you stand up for these women?

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.