Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear some cheering from the opposition. They do not like having the spotlight put on them, do they! Let us first consider the right-of-entry provisions that have got Mr McDonald into trouble so many times. We have heard a lot about promise-keeping this week, and let us remember that before the 2007 election—an election featuring debate about industrial relations—both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard promised that there would be no changes to union right-of-entry laws under a Labor government. These were commitments that eerily parallel the one made in the 2010 election campaign by Ms Gillard about the central issue of carbon taxation. Of course, the central assertions of Mr Rudd and Ms Gillard in 2007 did not come to fruition. The Fair Work Act was introduced by Ms Gillard and in fact greatly expanded the right-of-entry rules for discussion—expansions which have been exploited by the union bosses in WA. This exploitation has been further exacerbated by rival unions visiting the same sites multiple times as they compete for members.

It was the previous government's own Fair Work Act review panel, commissioned by the now opposition leader in 2012, that detailed how a number of Western Australia projects had become the target of right-of-entry abuse by unions. In particular, the panel noted the situation at the Pluto LNG project, which received over 200 right-of-entry visits in three months, and at BHP's Worsley Alumina plant, which received 676 right-of-entry visits in just one year—676. That is more than one a day. That is two a day, including weekends. Haven't they got anything else to do—just right of entry?

Ms Butler interjecting—

We hear the opposition again standing up and protecting the militant unions in Western Australia.

See this speech in context