Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The member for McMahon. Why was it not introduced by him? You have to understand the history of somebody who has come to this place with the agenda that the member for Gorton had. We know that when he came to Australia he and most of his family found a home in the union movement.

I do not have any problem with the unions. I think that quite often they are a good idea for collective bargaining and as a way to get better terms and conditions for their workers. But when they become a political force, basically for and on behalf of the Labor Party, then they have to be looked at. I was a union representative myself as a schoolteacher. I was happy to try and get better terms and conditions for my colleagues in the teaching profession. But when that same union started collecting money from both me and my wife, who is a schoolteacher, and decided that they were going to use that money in campaigns against us, I drew the line. Why would we be paying union dues when that money was being used in a campaign waged against us?

This is not what the bill is about; this is about a power grab by the unions to control the offshore resources industry, as I have already said. Obviously, it is about shoring up the member for Gorton's base and those who got him here. We know that his brother, Michael O'Connor, is one of the head CFMEU bosses. He has a lot of influence. That is how you get in here; if you have influence through the unions you get preselected. So it is about paying back debts. This is about throwing international agreements to the four wins around the Arafura and Timor seas, and imposing unnecessary and harsh regulations on the offshore industries that serve us. It is not completely in the best interests of Australia.

In relation to the comments made by the member for Corio, I find it very interesting that he said this visa would not pass the character test. Well, goodness me! Please, Labor Party, do not talk about visas and character tests! We can hark back to those entering who burnt the boat and five people were seriously hurt. Five people were taken to court and convicted, and they still got visas from those opposite! So much for a character test! I will not go into the contentious activity of today too much, other than to say that somebody who is a drug dealer and wants a visa in Australia might not pass the character test either. So they should not lecture us about character tests and visas. There is a whole range of people who should not be allowed to stay in Australia who have been caught in pretty nefarious and illegal activities, and under this lot opposite they are still in Australia. We are going to apply the character test as it should be applied.

The member for Corio also said that this is about safety. Well, good—I am all for safety. But I know, as somebody who has been inducted onto these rigs in the resource areas, that you have to go through a massive induction program before you get on there. This is another thing—and this is one of the reasons why it is difficult for the resources industry to comply with a whole lot of the ambit claims given by these unions—they have to fly the union rep out by helicopter and house him out there. It has been reported that some offshore employees have had to charter special service flights as seats were not available on normal flights because the workers were actually using them. It has resulted in critical expenses that saw an operator have to outlay something like an extra $80,000 to placate the unions and their mates and just get them out on the barge or the platform.

The irony of all this is that when we talk about visas like this, the member for Brand was roundly criticised because he tried to organise 457 visas especially in our resources industry in Western Australia and—who was it?—Paddy Crumlin and the MUA wanted to threaten his preselection. And then there was the former member for Batman, Martin Ferguson, who said that the MUA was threatening all these jobs and that it was going to hurt our resources sector. At the moment we are seeing the MUA threatening to take all the tugboat guys out on strike. They get paid $135,000 just for six months work and the unions want to see them get paid 40 per cent more—

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