Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion on trade unions moved by the member for Wide Bay, Mr O'Brien—a young member by National Party standards who grew up in a time of Australia's greatest affluence and social stability, underpinned by the union movement. Wide Bay is of course a constituency in Queensland—a state referred to in the 1980s, during the last period of sustained National Party rule, as the 'Moonlight State' because corruption in all its forms was so rife in government, the public sector and the Queensland police. Things have not always been that brilliant in New South Wales either, probably since about the time of the Rum Rebellion. But if there were a reality TV series called 'State of origin for dodgy dealing and influence peddling' I think the Queensland Nationals, captained by Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, vice-captained by Russ Hinze, would win every time.

This motion proceeds on several false assumptions. The first is that for some reason Labor members would want to defend anyone charged with and found guilty of a serious criminal offence. This is clearly absurd. The second false assumption is that, for reasons unexplained, the Queensland government should just give the Commonwealth free police resources to assist with an ongoing ill-defined inquiry into some unnamed and identified Queensland union people. This is thought bubble, Turnbull government style leadership par excellence. I invite the honourable member to come to my electorate and meet the families that have benefited from the work of unions such as the HSU, United Voice, TWU, USU, the Nurses and Midwives Association and many other unions.

Not content with trying to frame the South Australian government over the failings of federal government energy policy, presumably this government now wants to hit the Queensland government with a gratuitous whacking, for no particular reason. With the ever-broadening choice of Labor state and territory governments to pick from, I suppose we should all just learn to expect more of this sort of thing from a Judas goat Prime Minister leading his flock to the slaughter.

Thirdly, the motion reveals that for this government any form of union activity is necessarily nascent thuggery. For them, the very existence of trade unions remains a conspiracy against free market principles and the right to exploit workers at every point. I know I am harking back to first principles, but I would remind this government that the rights to organise and to bargain collectively are basic democratic principles, irrespective of what this self-interested mob want to believe. So I freely admit to having been a member of Australia's most powerful workers collective for close to 40 years. It is called the AMA, and I have done very nicely. I am also proud to say that I am a member of the HSU.

When this ramshackle collective on the other side attack unions, what they really need to recognise is they are attacking the things that most of us consider basic rights, such as the 40-hour week, penalty rates, annual leave, maternity leave, equal pay for women, sickness benefits and occupational health and safety programs. In my lifetime we have had the unions and their heroes such as Jack Mundey to thank for the green bans which have protected much of Sydney's historical architecture from destruction. We also have them to thank for the fight against conscription and the Vietnam War, for which I will be eternally grateful.

In my industry, health, it is quite clear that the Health Services Union is continuing to fight for better conditions for all workers, particularly for the very lowly paid. We are of course aware that we work in a 24-hour industry, but health workers should be compensated fairly for working in extremely difficult conditions, and the fight goes on. The HSU is fighting to beat privatisation of New South Wales public hospitals. It has fought to achieve better death and disability protection for those most valuable workers, paramedics, and has successfully fought for return of superannuation money not paid to some of the lowest paid health services workers.

The principles that the trade union movement stands for have not changed. The Turnbull government is not so much conservative as reactionary in its headlong rush to target trade unions. It has forgotten that what most of us believe to be civilised working conditions are the result of years of work by the union movement.

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