Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am glad that the previous speaker has made these points and I hope he will stick around and learn that the last group that will enshrine penalty rates in this chamber are the Australian Labor Party. It is appropriate that we consider just how weak they have been in negotiating enterprise agreements in the past. This entire bill that detains the House today is essentially: negotiations over wage agreements were handed to an independent umpire, like an umpire in a cricket game, but, when the Labor Party are lbw, they want to change the rules and say there cannot be lbw anymore—preposterous.

In Queensland we have a perfect example: MP Don Brown, member for United Voice, in my electorate. As a current Labor MP, he has damaged clubs and their reputation and threatened staff. He has form, because, back in 2009, he was the lead union organiser who presided over the ripping away of penalty rates in an agreement with the Treasury Casino. But do not take it from me. The record is now with solidarity.net.au, who said:

Although delegates made up the negotiating team, in practice, it was the lead Casinos' union organiser, Don Brown, who had the authority.

Let us give voice to the workers who Mr Brown purported to represent. 'It was a disaster,' they said. The two main reasons the casino dispute went the boss's way were the laws and the union officials. The Treasury Casino deal under Mr Don Brown ripped away public holiday rates and left workers on Sundays worse off. Public holiday rates disappeared and remain completely gone. When the company rejected the union wage demands, it was people like Mr Don Brown who insisted that wage claims be lowered further in negotiations with management.

So what really got in the way of a successful strike in the end was Mr Don Brown, who when it came to the crunch actually stood next to management at these meetings. At every point when there was a choice to go forward or back—like a tank with five gears: four reverse and one forward just in case it was attacked from behind—Mr Brown basically stood shoulder to shoulder with management. In those final few days before the strike he dropped the wage demand from 5.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent. Of course this union backdown under Mr Don Brown encouraged the casino to offer even less.

Astonishingly, the union cancelled a second planned strike and agreed to go ahead with—wait for it—a company controlled ballot on the offer. You can imagine how disgusted workers were when their own union managed to crumble their efforts to at least have a strike that they voted 98 per cent in favour of. Mr Brown even had a PowerPoint presentation showing why casino workers should not strike, despite their vote. When the paperwork was submitted by the union's legal team, a technicality was found by Treasury's legal team, making it impossible for these workers to express their views in a strike.

Many union members simply did not vote after they saw Mr Brown standing next to the managing director trying to sell a 'rotten deal'. Workers felt betrayed by their union. The greatest present danger to penalty rates in this country are the literally dozens—over 100—enterprise agreements invented by unions in their negotiations with bosses. We are not talking about the umpire in this bill. Unions are the threat to penalty rates in this country. There were many union members who had given up. Two strikes had been cancelled after they had actually voted for them.

Then we have the libel and Don Brown circulating as a MP. He is no longer the member for Capalaba but now the 'member for United Voice'. I seek leave to table this libellous graph, which shows the completely fallacious wage agreement at Capalaba Sports Club, where Mr Don Brown could not even add up a penalty rate. One hundred people resigned from the LHMU as a result of this setback, but ultimately people like Don Brown and Mick de Brenni are examples of union bureaucracy. They see unionism as about being lawyers, this insidious and odious layer between management and workers trying to get what they want.

The deal at the Treasury Casino in 2009 is enshrined as an example of: if you put your trust in unions, you can say goodbye to penalty rates if it suits union organisers. They were paid to represent these people and did not. They were too worried about legal action to stand up and fight. Like you would dream would never happen in these negotiations, penalty rates disappeared because it suited the unions. (Time expired)

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