Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to speak in support of the great Australian trade union movement. The trade union movement is a force for good and a force for change. It has been responsible, together with Labor governments, for some of the great social and economic changes of this country. The trade union movement is under attack from a Prime Minister trying to fulfil a 30-year tired old dream. We note that the trade union movement is the target of the Work Choices legislation, but it is wise to acknowledge that the real target of this legislation is the Australian Labor Party. This is a politically motivated piece of legislation, because the Prime Minister knows that if he can attack the trade union movement, he can attack the Australian Labor Party.

Labor, as a party, was born of the trade union movement. We are proud of our bonds with the trade union movement—we say it long, we say it hard and we say it often. The Liberal Party knows its origins and so do we. We recognise our origins, and we are very proud of our bonds with the trade union movement. The government has taken on Australia’s biggest community based organisation, with more than two million members. I can report that the unions to which I have spoken have reported increases in membership as a result of this attack from the coalition government. The union movement and the ALP are in this fight together. We are in the fight of our lives, and we will triumph over the Howard government for its politically motivated attacks on the trade union movement and, through the trade union movement, on the Australian Labor Party.

The trade union movement was set up on the principle of a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. That was in the 1800s. It is just as relevant today, as the trade union movement seeks to ensure that every working Australian has a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. The trade union movement, working in collaboration with the Hawke and Keating governments, achieved great things for this country and was heavily responsible for the prosperity that is now being enjoyed. However, many people are missing out, with casual work, very tenuous work and increasingly insecure work particularly as a result of this legislation. The Australian Labor Party and the trade union movement will work together to get some greater job security back into the Australian workforce, to get some fairness back into the Australian workforce and for the ALP to once again assume government and be a force for change in collaboration with the trade union movement. Good economic change, good social change and greater prosperity are what we stand for. I say to government members that the day of reckoning is coming. We are in this for the fight of our lives and we will win. (Time expired)