Peter Costello (Higgins, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Cowper for his question, and I can tell him that the government believes that industrial relations reform is absolutely critical to Australia’s economic future. One of the most significant reforms which the government has introduced is the reform which gives each and every worker the right to join, and the right not to join, a trade union. Both rights are protected in legislation under the policies of this government.

The proportion of people in the private sector who exercised their right to join a union at August 2000 was 17 per cent. Seventeen per cent of workers in the private sector had exercised their right to join a trade union. The proportion of Labor MPs in this House who are members of trade unions is 100 per cent—every single one of them—because you cannot sit as a Labor MP until you have joined the particular union that you are eligible to join.

On the weekend, we saw one of Labor’s policies put into practice at the South Australian Labor conference: the notorious Labor policy of ‘no ticket, no start’. If you were not a member of the journalists union, if you did not have a ticket, you were not allowed to get into the ALP conference in South Australia. This had the effect of banning journalists who had exercised their freedom of choice not to join a union from getting in and covering the speech of the Leader of the Opposition. As we have just heard from the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition had to go across to a park to address the journalists who did not have a ticket and had therefore been banned from the ALP conference.

Just in case you thought this was some one-off from the South Australian Labor conference, this morning Labor frontbenchers were asked on their way into parliament what they think about this policy. According to AAP, Labor MPs arriving at Parliament House were confronted by a media pack demanding to know why non-union reporters were banned. First in for the morning was Labor backbencher Kelvin Thomson. He was asked whether he supported ‘no ticket, no start’ and he said, ‘I’d have to make inquiries about that. The first I’ve heard about it is you raising it with me this morning.’

The next person in was Julia Gillard, and she was asked whether she agreed with ‘no ticket, no start.’ She said, ‘It’s a South Australian branch conference; therefore the South Australian branch sets the rules.’ It was as if she was saying, ‘It’s got nothing to do with me—it’s all South Australia!’ The next one in was Mr Kevin Rudd, who said, ‘I’ve just got off a plane from Brisbane and I’m not fully aware of the issue. I’d rather be briefed on what’s gone on.’ The next one in was Anthony Albanese.

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