House debates

Monday, 14 July 2014

Bills

Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014; Second Reading

7:28 pm

Photo of Terri ButlerTerri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will take the interjection. Craig Thomson has just been raised. As we know, he broke the law and he should suffer the full consequences of a breach of the law. But the fact is that the union was the victim of that crime. Just as if a director of a company defrauds that company, that does not make that company illegitimate; so if an official of a union defrauds a union, that is not a basis to claim that unions are illegitimate. Does the act allow for criminal proceedings to be initiated where funds are stolen or are obtained by fraud? Yes, it does. Does the act already ensure that the Fair Work Commission can share information with the police as appropriate? Yes, it does. The Registered Organisations Act already provides for statutory civil penalties where a party knowingly or recklessly contravenes an order or direction made by the Federal Court or the Fair Work Commission under the Registered Organisations Act or the Fair Work Act.

Officers of registered organisations already have fiduciary duties akin to those for directors under the Corporations Law and there are corresponding statutory obligations. The Registered Organisations Act already requires officers to disclose their personal interests, already requires officers to disclose when payments are made to related parties and already requires officers to exercise care and diligence, act with good faith and not improperly use their position for advantage. Given all of this, we cannot help but question the motives of this government in introducing this bill.

Why is the government rushing to impose this new regime, which includes some penalties that exceed the Corporations Act? It is just yet another attack on unions, because they do not want to talk about their budget. They are looking for something—anything—to talk about other than their toxic budget, which is the budget that has been rejected so comprehensively by the Australian people and that breaches those pre-election commitments of no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no changes to the pension and no new taxes. What have we seen? We have seen the GP tax, the tax when you go and get an x-ray, the tax when you get a blood test, the deregulation of higher education, the cuts to education, the changes to the pension indexation that will leave pensioners worse off and the petrol tax. It is a litany of broken promises and twisted priorities. (Time expired)

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