Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Why not, you say, but let's see that sort of reciprocal access to business. And the unions have certainly expanded the number of people they claim to represent since this state Labor government's election. The Labor government has gone on a hiring spree since they were elected—that is certainly one way of pushing down the unemployment figures; it is also a good way to get more people into the public sector union movement. The most recent figures, which are for the quarter ending September 2016, demonstrate that the Queensland Labor government employs a record number of bureaucrats—212,853 full-time equivalent employees to be precise. This compares with 196,856 in the months before they were elected—16,000 new public sector employees or, more accurately, many more than that since many of these full-time equivalent workers will be made up of multiple part-time employees.

Who is paying for these employees? Of course it is the Queensland taxpayer. However, expanding the potential market for unions with new state employees was not enough for this state Labor government; you also need to increase your conversion rate to really make your money. So, in May 2015, the Palaszczuk government reintroduced the union encouragement policy. For those who do not know how the Labor union alliance works, this policy document makes for eye-opening reading. It commits the government machinery in Queensland to encouraging union membership. It also gives unionists time off, paid for by the government, to learn how to become better unionists. It mandates the new government employees be given a statement saying that the government encourages them to join a union, and it ensures that unions will be given the details of new employees—presumably, so that they can harangue them to join up. If it was not so serious, you would think this was some sort of sick joke. Yet the Palaszczuk government has got away with it without so much as a whimper.

An Australian Bureau of Statistics survey of 2013 suggests that more than 40 per cent of public sector employees were union members when the figure across the board is only half that—that is, one in five. If that percentage holds up for the government's new employees, the union movement in Queensland looks set to make millions from their expanded membership. The Queensland state Labor government should be ashamed of this clearly self-serving decision, which has, at its very rotten core, a Queensland taxpayer-funded protection racket for their union mates. We have just seen, last week, the ACTU secretary Sally McManus and her entirely misguided, a la carte views on the rule of law. This House should condemn the Queensland Labor government's decision. We and the media should continue to shine a bright light on their now state-sponsored world of union lawlessness. (Time expired)

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