Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I will come to you later; just don’t go out of here! The role of the unions in winning pay and conditions from capital, by dint of their organisational ability, their capacity as individuals, their advocacy, and their professionalism—that is what it is about; understanding the proper role of trade unions. In this country, we all know—even the blue bloods opposite know; those with the silver spoon know this, and they have got that silver-spoon privilege not by dint of their own work but by the work of hardworking Australian men and women—that those people doing the hard yakka in the workplace: in the coalfields; on the building sites; in the financial sector; in the hospitals; those are the people doing the work. These are the people who create value for us. It might well be thought that you would recognise that even if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, as many of the other side seem to have been. I have a great deal of respect for some—not all, but some—members of the government. I know them to be fair and genuine people—yourself included, Mr Deputy Speaker. Not that I want to malign you—

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