Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Technology and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

and come back with responses to questions so that we could have reached an agreed position, Minister. In summary, the major issue with this bill remains the ACTU representation on the board. We will oppose today, we will oppose tomorrow and we will oppose the next day the privileged treatment of the union movement that occurs every day with this government. We will oppose it. Board members should be appointed by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation in consultation with the Minister for Defence. The minister alone should appoint them. There should not be privileged positions for the Labor faithful and the Labor mates.

A second issue is that the ACTU is currently able to nominate more directors than is the Chief of the Defence Force. The defence and veteran community believes that military representation on the CSC board should be at least equal to that of the ACTU or, more importantly, there should just be no ACTU at all. Thirdly, the minister cannot dismiss an ACTU nominated director. It is outrageous that the government would put up a bill that says three members are from a privileged group and the government cannot get rid of them unless there is egregious behaviour—already extant legislation allows for dismissal in such a case—and only the President of the ACTU can get rid of them. Only an unelected official can get rid of them. It is unacceptable that the ACTU president, rather than the responsible minister, would have such power over appointments. The other five employer directors can be dismissed by the responsible minister but not the ACTU ones.

Given that a quorum of nine members is required for a board meeting and that three are ACTU directors—not appointed by the minister and not able to be removed by the minister—those three can prevent such a meeting from being held. That they can do so is simply and utterly outrageous. The bill cannot be supported in its current form. The opposition will oppose it. The opposition has circulated amendments in my name to make the bill far more acceptable to the veteran community and, indeed, to the Australian people.

See this speech in context