Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I apologise for not addressing my remarks through the chair, but Senator Williams and I have been working on these issues for many years. I understand Senator Williams's frustration at his own party and the coalition that he's part of not dealing with these issues and not dealing with them effectively—the whole web of funding entities across the coalition. Do they do anything about that? No, they do not.

And we have the latest one: the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria, Matthew Guy, attending a fundraiser with mafia figures and attempting to get funding. It is unbelievable that they don't deal with the problems on their own side, but they always concentrate on the trade union movement. We have Damien Mantach, a former state secretary of the Liberal Party both in Tasmania and Victoria, ending up in jail. That's one who's in jail, Senator Williams! A former secretary of the Liberal Party is in jail for defrauding the party of $1.5 million. Again, why is it that it's always the trade union movement that gets hauled up in this place by this rabble of a government?

In the CBA inquiry, concern was raised over whistleblowers. Has the government done anything on whistleblowers to help the public get some protection? All they did was introduce legislation for whistleblowers in the trade union movement, but not the banking industry. So if we're talking about corruption and you're talking about dealing with corruption, this mob is not dealing with corruption effectively. When we get the outcome of the parliamentary inquiry into a national ICAC, it will be interesting to see whether this lot will actually do anything about it. The evidence so far would be that, no, they won't, because they are so ideologically committed to trying to destroy the trade union movement—to destroy workers' rights to collectively bargain, to destroy workers' access to union advice on the job—that that's all they focus on when corruption is mentioned. It's always about corruption in the trade union movement.

When you look at the issues, even after a royal commission, they are miniscule against the corruption and the illegality that's going on across this nation by business and the people who donate to Senator Cash and her party—but they won't touch them. They won't go near them. There are big issues in relation to this. Every bank—the CBA, the ANZ, Macquarie Bank, the National Australia Bank, Westpac—has problems, but what do this mob do? They do nothing. They defend the banks and they will not go to a royal commission to deal with corruption there.

We have to be a bit cynical about what this is all about. We are of the view that this is simply about diminishing the capacity of the trade union movement to operate effectively. That's why we have a range of amendments that we are putting up to try and make this bill a bit better, but I'm not sure that all of the advice that we are providing through this approach in the committee will be heeded by the government. I'm not sure if this government is ever going to treat the trade union movement with the respect it should have in this country. We've seen the Reserve Bank Governor say that, if workers don't get wage increases—and the key way workers get wage increases in this country is through the actions and support of their unions—then the economy will continue to decline.

There are huge issues in relation to this bill. The incompetence in the context of the bill that's before us is unbelievable. We have a range of amendments that we are proposing. Our amendments would go some way to dealing with the problems in this bill, but, Minister, can you explain why the focus is on the trade union movement and the other issues are ignored?