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

I seek leave to go back to document 13—the ABCC report.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted.

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

I just want to indicate that we have heard that One Nation and Senator Pauline Hanson have done a deal with the government to capitulate to the government's $65 billion tax cuts in return for a thousand apprenticeships. This is an outrageous proposition. The ABCC code prohibits the trade union movement negotiating with companies to increase apprenticeships. You would get more than a thousand apprenticeships if you simply stopped that restriction on unions negotiating with employers to take on young apprentices and give them a job for the future. That is where Senator Hanson should be dealing with this issue, not by capitulating to the government. She should simply concede that what she has done is capitulate to the government after saying that she was standing up for the battlers, as she always says—but she never delivers. If she were going to stand up for the battlers, she wouldn't be capitulating to a $65 billion tax cut for big business. She wouldn't be giving business another free kick by saying that she'll give them apprenticeships and pay for them during the life of the apprenticeships.

This is just an outrageous proposition. It's simply One Nation having no understanding of the problems for young kids getting into apprenticeships. It's about One Nation using the apprenticeship system as a smokescreen for capitulating to the government—something that Senator Hanson and One Nation do all of the time. They have got no comprehension of the issues for apprentices. They have got no comprehension of the issues facing families in this country. They are an absolute fraud.

Senator Hanson is the biggest fraud that has come into this place. She stands up and argues that she's looking after the battlers, and yet she capitulates to the government at every opportunity she can take. She is a fraud, incompetent and not prepared to deal with the real issues for working families in this country. She's saying that this will give unemployed kids and kids that are drug addicts the opportunity to get an apprenticeship. That is a complete misunderstanding of the needs of industry, the commitment you've got to give to an apprenticeship and the benefits that an apprenticeship can give to a young person and to a business. Business should not be getting paid to put an apprentice on. Business should be employing apprentices to make sure the future of their company is assured and to make sure the skill base of this country is assured for the future and we can become internationally competitive. This is an absolute nonsense.

I know that there are a couple of tradespeople in the Pauline Hanson's One Nation party, and I know that there were problems within the One Nation party in relation to this capitulation. So what's happened is that Senator Hanson has come up with this concocted deal with the government to put on a thousand apprentices across the country and have them in rural and regional areas—the areas where apprentices are exploited mercilessly in this country. You've only got to look at what the Fair Work Ombudsman is exposing around the country. This is a thought bubble, a capitulation by Senator Hanson, a capitulation by One Nation. I would have thought that the two tradespeople in the One Nation party would have known better than to do what they have done.

This is a misuse of the apprenticeship system. The government itself is saying that it will put on 300,000 apprentices over the forward estimates. Is it an extra 1,000? Are they part of the 300,000? What checks and balances will be in there for young apprentices and small businesses in rural and regional areas to make sure that they get a contract for employment, a contract for training? This is just the worst example I have ever seen in this place of a party capitulating to the government. We've seen some big capitulations over the last decade in this place, but this is the worst example. Senator Hanson should simply say she's capitulated to the government and stop using apprentices as an excuse. This is not about apprentices; this is purely about capitulation and weakness from Pauline Hanson and One Nation.

Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cameron, your time has expired.

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

I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.