Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I have to say that, whilst I was not surprised, it reminded me that once they put on the cloak of the coalition they must have a frontal lobotomy. You think, when they come here, they are free thinkers and actually understand the community and the people they work with. Then they come in here and say, 'We can't have unions.' The member for Bradfield asked what capacity unions have to understand the importance of superannuation. He asked how they know how to make decisions about the benefits that might accrue to their members from superannuation funds. I suggest to the member for Bradfield, and indeed to my comrade the member for Fadden opposite, that they actually look at the performance of super funds which are run by trade unions. They will find that some of them are among the best and highest-performing funds in the country. They are very good funds. They are run effectively, with boards which have independent directors and all the rest of it, by the trade union movement in the various industry sectors. They run very well, so let us not have the cant which has come from the member for Bradfield—the sophisticated, snobby cant from the North Shore of Sydney—talking about what unions can and cannot do. It is okay for the employers: 'We know what we're doing because we're educated.' Trade unionists are too, and they are a lot bloody smarter than you give them credit for.

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