Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

That's right—a real worker standing up for mates. I can hear the rubbish from the member for Fisher, disrespecting blue-collar workers. We know how much they hate unions, how much they hate workers—how much they despise workers. We absolutely know that. They're screaming and yelling because I've mentioned a fierce advocate, Mick Denton, who will stand up for workers in his electorate of Petrie and who will fight for the rights of workers to make sure their jobs are protected. I know they don't like it, I know they're antiworkers, I know they don't like blue-collar workers, and I know that because we see their actions time and time again.

So it's because of the leadership, through our national secretariat, of the Australian Workers Union—my union that I'm a proud member of and have been for about 25 years—that those workers interests are protected. If it were up to this government—they were shown the warning signs years ago—those workers would all be out of jobs now. What about all the workers at those two refineries that have been lost? Have we heard one single apology from those opposite about those jobs that were lost? Absolutely not. Those workers were thrown on the scrap heap by the Morrison government—completely rejected.

The workers that have fought for this, through the Australian Workers Union and their fierce advocacy, are people like Steve Baker, the state secretary of the Australian Workers Union in Queensland, and people like Daniel Walton, the national secretary.

Honourable members interjecting—

They hate it when we talk about workers. They are resolute in their opposition to working people. We know that time and time again. We saw that in how they treated refineries in the electorates where the Altona Refinery is based, we've seen it in Western Australia, we've seen it in Victoria. We've seen it, we hear it and we live it. There's no secrecy about this, about how much they despise workers and blue-collar workers. We know that. Their actions and their hysteria tonight simply prove that.

The state of our fuel security is an embarrassment. It's an embarrassment to the Prime Minister, who likes to talk big on national security. It's an embarrassment to a government that appears to have an ideological opposition to any kind of alternatives, but perversely refuses to properly protect our traditional fuel supplies. It's an embarrassment to a government that has, after eight long years, delivered absolutely nothing to Australians except a wage slump, record debt and a fuel situation that leaves us completely dependent on foreign supply.

Labor welcomes this package of bills, but it comes far too late for the refineries that have been shut down and closed forever by this government. They should hang their heads in shame. They shouldn't be yelling at me when I'm defending workers. They should be standing up in this parliament to make sure that our fuel security is guaranteed and the jobs of the future are protected.

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