Gary Hardgrave (Moreton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The past 11 years have been typified by a replenishment of the role of the individual in our society. Individual liberty has been most definitely at the forefront of the actions of this government. The fear is that later this year, because of some attraction to the jockey—do not mind the jockey; let us look at the horse—we could see a circumstance in Australia in which a government could be returned that does not govern for Australia but governs for the Labor Party and the trade union movement. ‘No ticket, no start’ will be the mantra of their conduct. There would be an absolute attack on personal liberty, because the collective would override the individual at every turn. Let me put the case for why this would be so.

One example would be the Commonwealth Public Sector Union, which, only a couple of months ago, commented that, if a Rudd government were returned at a later point in this year, all Commonwealth public servants would be required to join the Commonwealth Public Sector Union. This, it said, would not only make the union flush with funds but also give it the power, because of those funds, to purchase affiliation prowess within the Labor Party and the labour movement, give them additional left-wing votes and create the possibility for them to influence who was in the cabinet. Let us unbundle that. Individual public servants would be told, ‘No ticket, no start; you have to join the Commonwealth Public Sector Union.’ Not only that; when they joined, the handful of people at the top of the tree in that union would start to decide who was in the cabinet of the country—the supreme policymaking body, which affects the lives of everyday Australians. Currently, only 17 per cent of people in private enterprise are in unions. But all of that would change with a change of government. No ticket would mean no start.

The example of the Commonwealth Public Service would start a knock-on effect as every other union would begin to take a role in trying to suppress the growth of the Left through the Commonwealth Public Sector Union. We are already seeing this in places in Queensland, where a forced amalgamation of councils comes hand in glove with a statement from the Queensland government that members of the Australian Workers Union—a right-wing union—will in fact be placed, like worms in an apple, in every council that has been forcibly amalgamated with another one in order to coordinate the way that council operates. Am I hearing correctly? Yes. The state Labor government in Queensland will pay union officials to go and park themselves in councils and decide who stays and who goes; who is hired and who is fired. This is an insight into the way in which a federal Labor government would operate. There will be a union official beside every cash register in every small business in every part of Australia. They will decide who is hired, who is fired, what services are offered, what goods are made available, what time you open and what time you close. There is no doubt about it.

The Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations has entered the chamber and he will correct me if I am wrong, and I know that he will not correct me. Greg Combet is looking forward to the time when unions will run Australia again. Today in the House we heard another example of the way in which that CFMEU thug in Western Australia, Kevin Reynolds, is yearning for the opportunity to get rid of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner established by this government in 2005. Why did we establish that office? To get building and construction on a proper and legal footing and to allow individuals who want to work hard to get the opportunity to work and to progress. What we are now seeing in Western Australia—where the CFMEU have run roughshod over the Western Australian building industry for so many years and where the ‘blue flu’ took people out of work sites for hundreds of days each year—is unemployment down to around two per cent. We have an example in Queensland and we have an example in Western Australia. Kevin Reynolds wants to see the end of the ABCC because they are using powers to hit unionists with individual writs of some $28,600 if they breach the agreed conditions, such as entry to work sites. Reynolds says that they are going to put their shoulder to the wheel to assist in the campaign to unseat the Howard government and that they are going to have the biggest celebration possible on the night that it is defeated.

Labor’s captivity to its union masters is a source of enormous concern for each of us on this side, and it should be of enormous concern for all thinking Australians. There will no promotions within state or federal government organisations or within businesses unless you are a member of the Labor Party. The Labor Party policy on industrial relations is all about this. They talk about workplace democracy, but what it means is that as long as a simple majority of the total number of workers in a particular workplace participate in a ballot then everybody else can please themselves. There was a fantastic article in the Courier-Mail of 24 May by Dr Paul Gollan of Macquarie University, who warned that if union heavies could get 51 per cent of a workplace to participate in a ballot then all they would have to do would be to get 51 per cent of them to vote one way to get what they want. You could end up with just 26 per cent of the total workforce telling the other 74 per cent what to do and how to go about it. You would see the good, the bad, the ugly, the lazy and the productive all getting paid the same. Individual enterprise, the freedom to negotiate and choice in the workplace would be denied people.

I just do not understand why the Australian Labor Party cannot follow the advice of Rod Cameron, who said, quite rightly, the other week that people do not want unions back in their lives. They do not want a circumstance where they are told what to think by a selective group of people in a smoke filled room with the Tammany Hall logic of ‘If you don’t agree with us, we’ll get you’ prevailing. I certainly do not want to see a Commonwealth Public Service that is as heavily politicised as we see in states like Queensland, where Labor Party membership means promotions, where loyalty to the Labor Party ahead of loyalty to Australia could create a seditious kind of environment—but that is exactly what the Australian Labor Party have planned for Australia. They have planned the return of the great tomato sauce strikes where, if you do not see tomato sauce in your workshop canteen, it is: ‘All out, brothers. All out until we get the tomato sauce.’ These things happened in years past. We saw the great dim sim strikes at Darling Harbour because of the smell of dim sims wafting up from Sussex Street. It was not the smell of Labor Party headquarters; it was the dim sims from Chinatown which caused all the workers to go out on strike until they got a dim sim allowance. That was 20 years ago, and we have spent the last 11 years repairing the mess caused by the stupidity of the sorts of circumstances where wharfies went on strike if they were not allowed ‘the nick’—that is, anything they could flog from any container that happened to have been opened. All I would say to anybody in Australian business—if you still decide to stay in business after this election if a Rudd government is returned—is: do not have a part container delivered to an Australian wharf, because we will be back to the situation where ‘the nick’ will be back in vogue.

We do not want a nation where allegiance to this political party, the Australian Labor Party, first and foremost is the way in which every business place, every state public servant and every federal public servant will operate. We do not want to see a circumstance where if you speak out, you will get kneecapped just like the poor member for Charlton who has been so poorly treated by the Australian Labor Party. She—and her father, with 48 years of membership of the Labor Party—spoke out against the union movement and she was simply abolished from the party, told to leave. It is a disgrace that the member for Charlton has been treated in the way she has been treated. We see the Queensland government advertising currently on radio and saying, ‘In small business if you need a workplace mentor, someone who understands how a small business operates, contact the Queensland government’—another worm in the apple, where a union affiliated public servant will arrive at your business, start to unpick it and then start to tell you how you should affiliate yourself with the Australian Labor Party at every turn.

I promised myself 20 years ago that I would find an occasion to put on public record the time when I was a member of the Australian Journalists Association and I resigned from it when it affiliated with the ACTU. It went from being a professional organisation to just another union. After I rejoined, when I briefly worked for the ABC, I was told that my resignation of two years earlier was not officially recognised and I owed two years in back dues. That is the way the union movement in this country wants to operate again. How can it be fair in the workplace if you cannot be sacked for stealing from the boss, but you can be sacked if you do not join a union? Real workers are left out of the equation in Labor’s planning for the workforce. Unions and their members are simply political playthings—a numbers game. The ALP has members in this place who are union members but they have never been on the tools. As far as I am concerned, this pompous lot opposite should never be given the chance to administer Australia in favour of the Labor Party. Stick with the Howard government which actually administers Australia in favour of all Australians.

Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time for the grievance debate has expired. The debate is interrupted and I put the question:

That grievances be noted.

Question agreed to.