John McVeigh (Groom, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry representing the Minister for Employment. How does the government's commitment to industrial relations reform help protect employees' pay and conditions by putting an end to corrupting benefits paid by business to unions?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Groom for his question. He was a distinguished minister in Queensland in the Newman government and he has come to join us here in Canberra. He, like all members on this side of the House, wants to see the recommendations from the Heydon royal commission introduced into the parliament and passed into law. The Heydon royal commission was one of the most far reaching royal commissions into trade union behaviour in Australia's history, and one of the very important recommendations from the Heydon royal commission was that corrupting benefits paid to unions by businesses should be banned and people who engage in them should face criminal sanction as a consequence. Yesterday, the government announced that we would introduce corrupting benefits legislation to ensure that businesses were not stood over by unions and did not pay the unions money and cash, membership lists and other things in order to get a benefit and an advantage from the union at the expense of the worker.

Over the last few months, there have been plenty of examples that have had quite a public airing. The Prime Minister is fond of talking about Clean Event, Chiquita Mushrooms and others, but there are several payments over a long period of time from businesses to the union in Victoria which need to be explained. Visy Industries, for example, paid $191,000 to the AWU between 2004 and 2007. IUS Holdings, an income insurance provider, paid $566,000 to the AWU between 2004 and 2007. Alcoa paid almost $90,000—which would be of interest to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs—to the AWU in Victoria between 2005 and 2006. Sugar Australia paid $16,000 to the AWU in Victoria between 2004 and 2007. Austral Bricks paid $14,000 between 2005 and 2007. There is a pattern here.

Apart from the pattern being that these businesses have been paying this money to the AWU in Victoria over a certain period of time, the question is: the secretary at that time could tell us why those payments were being made, and who do you think was the secretary of the AWU in Victoria at the time? Our old friend over here, our old china over here, the Leader of the Opposition. He was the national secretary or the state secretary during that period from 2004 to 2007 when all of those unexplained payments were being made to the AWU. Tomorrow, when I have more time, I will explain what the businesses got in return. There are many enterprise agreements signed in that time when this guy was running the show. (Time expired)