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

Before the interruption we were talking about the fit and proper person test that the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill will apply to people who are office-bearers in registered organisations. The member for Gorton and the member for Bendigo talked about how unfair it is that this bill would enable the executive, the government, to take away a union's right to choose who will lead it and take away a union's ability to organise merging. I know that the separation of powers is a difficult concept, and I know that some people opposite don't understand that the government is separate from the Federal Court, but it is the Federal Court that decides whether someone should be disqualified or whether two or more unions should be able to merge. Similarly, it is the Federal Court that should determine whether a union should be deregistered, which is the third aspect of this important bill.

The bill will ensure that the existing power of the Federal Court to deregister an organisation extends to situations where the organisation has repeatedly broken the law, has acted corruptly or has committed serious criminal offences. It is not the government that makes this call. I'm sure that you would know the difference between the government and the Federal Court, but sadly those opposite don't appear to understand that distinction. It is a very important distinction to make, because this is not the executive government saying that we will make those decisions; we are empowering the Federal Court to make that decision where it considers it appropriate.

The existing deregistration provisions in the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act have never been utilised under the current law. The last deregistration of a union was by former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1986, when he had the guts and the intestinal fortitude to deregister the Builders Labourers Federation. The leadership of the Labor Party under Bob Hawke is a far cry from the Labor Party's current leadership under the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition stood up today after question time to say that he'd been misrepresented. He still did not have the willingness to stand up and condemn the atrocious behaviour of CFMEU members telling workers at the mine site that they would rape their children. Not only did he not have the guts to condemn that behaviour but he went and supported them that week.

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