Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

They just haven't, and you can argue all you like. They've run plenty of picket lines—plenty of picket lines—Minister, out the front of businesses, but they haven't run many businesses. I well remember a bookshop that actually stood up for a small business policy that was being put forward by the coalition, and that small business then had union activism against it. It had the Transport Workers Union making sure that the book deliveries didn't arrive, and, if the books did arrive, they were thrown out onto the street, and they had damaged corners such that the bookshop could not sell them. This is the sort of union activity that I fear we are going to see as a result of this bill.

Indeed, in the June quarter 2022, there were 52 disputes, 22 more than in the previous quarter. Why do you think that might be?

Might it be due to the fact that we've now got the Labor Party in power? Some 73,700 employees were involved—an increase from 11,400 in the previous quarter. Some 128,100 working days were lost—an increase from 19,600 in the previous quarter. Small business can't afford this. Ordinary everyday Australians can't afford this. Union disputation leads to higher costs for families that are already struggling with energy costs, which are about to go up by 56 per cent under those opposite and their shonky policies—their misled, misguided policies on energy.

A government member interjecting—

Year ended estimates—if you could pronounce it right, we'd discuss it; but seeing as how you can't, I won't—234,600 working days were lost, which was 176,900 more than in the previous year. This is what we're going to see. This is the thin end of the wedge. We know that, because Labor is back in town. Moreover, the unions are back in town. The unions are back in control. Indeed, I very much agree with the Leader of the Opposition when he said:

The coalition wants to see wages increase. We do; of course we want to see workers' wages rise. Of course we do, particularly to help Australians deal with cost-of-living pressures inflicted on them by this government's catastrophic energy policy decisions, among many other bad decisions they have already made just in the last five months. But there is no evidence that this bill will bring about rises in wages. In fact, it will lead to job losses.

I well remember that, when the pandemic was at its height and when many Australians were very fearful of the loss of their jobs, the member for Rankin gave us the goal—the ambition—to keep unemployment down and to keep the doors of business open. We not only met that goal and that ambition; we beat it big time because we actually created jobs—

An honourable member interjectin g—

Yes, we did—during the pandemic. I know those opposite talk—

No, it's not, in fact, Member for Moreton. In fact, it's not. What we did during the pandemic and the policies we put in place not only saved lives but saved livelihoods. Those opposite would not know. They were not around the table when we were told that we were going to lose tens of thousands of Australians within weeks if not months due to COVID-19. I was there. I well recall it. They were heart-wrenching times. From the moment when James Kwan lost his life on 1 March 2020—the first Australian to lose his life due to COVID-19—they were times that needed a responsible government, able to make the right and proper decisions at the time. That said, this particular policy is bad policy.

I must say that it would be remiss of me not to note, with some sadness, the death of Peter Reith. He was a very good industrial relations advocate for our nation. He has passed away at the all-too-young age of 72, and I acknowledge the role that he played in very difficult circumstances. I know what the waterfront wars—the dispute on our wharves—meant for Australian farmers and Australian businesses. They were trying to export to the world and trying to bring in heavy machinery to plant the crops, to strip the crops and to do what they do in rural and regional Australia and they were unable to because of union activity. What we don't want to see as a result of this bill is the likes of John Setka dominating our industrial relations. We need to keep those sorts of people very much at bay. Those sorts of people should not have control over industrial sites, over workplaces or, indeed, over construction sites. That's the fear. We all have it, and we know this is just the unions leading Labor a merry dance.

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