Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry representing the Minister for Employment. What action is the government taking against officials of registered organisations who have been found to break the law? Is the minister aware of any alternative approaches?

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

I thank the member for Fisher for his question. Sadly, I have to inform him that, in the break, the CFMEU have broken another record, this time following a $300,000 fine from the Federal Court. They have now become the only union in Australia's history that's passed $10 million worth of fines. I heard one member from the Labor Party say, 'That's not much.' That's not much! In the same time, since 2001, they have given $13 million worth of donations to the Labor Party. That is $13 million worth of donations and $10 million worth of fines, a total of $23 million worth of the workers in the CFMEU's money that they were able to give away back to the Federal Court or to the Labor Party. So the leadership of the CFMEU thought $23 million of their workers' money was better off paying fines and donating to the Labor Party than leaving in the pockets of people who are members of the CFMEU. What a disgraceful union, and it's disgraceful that the Labor Party would think it's a good idea to keep taking money from the CFMEU.

And what was the great cause for which these fines were incurred in Queensland? Well, the great cause was disrupting work on the Queensland children's hospital and—wait for it—Ronald McDonald House. For all those families from rural and regional Australia who went to Brisbane to stay with their sick children at the children's hospital, the CFMEU thought it was a good idea to disrupt building on Ronald McDonald House and the Queensland children's hospital. Yes, they have gone very quiet. What an amoral union is the CFMEU.

But you know a person by the friends they keep, and the CFMEU's best friend in this place is the Leader of the Opposition. So, if the Leader of the Opposition intends to remain their best friend, he has to wear it. Why does he not show some backbone, some spine, like Bob Hawke did when Bob Hawke said about the CFMEU, 'I wouldn’t tolerate it. You know what I did with the Builders Labourers Federation—I would throw them out.' That's what Bob Hawke said about the CFMEU because, of course, he threw out the BLF, but not this Leader of the Opposition who, like an automaton, cannot stop repeating the same thing because he's been stung. He supports a union that thinks it's a good idea to slow down work on Ronald McDonald's House and the children's hospital in Queensland. Shame on him!

Mr Perrett interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton is warned.