Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House of how employees can be well represented in negotiations to improve their pay and conditions? Are there any alternative policies that would reduce this freedom?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Blair for the question and note that, in 1996, the unemployment rate in Blair was 9.4 per cent; today it is 5 per cent—nearly halved. That is a great outcome for the people of Blair. This government has enshrined in law the right of employees to be represented by a trade union, and of course during employment negotiations they can be represented by anyone that they want.

Daryl Melham (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Melham interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Banks is warned.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Importantly, we have also enshrined in law the right for someone to choose not to be a member of the union, so nobody can be bullied or forced into joining a union under our workplace relations laws.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Owens interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Parramatta will remove herself under standing order 94(a).

The member for Parramatta then left the chamber.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a fundamental difference between the Labor Party and us. We believe—

Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Brendan O’Connor interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Gorton will remove himself under standing order 94(a).

The member for Gorton then left the chamber.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is a fundamental difference between the coalition and the Labor Party. It is enshrined in the Labor Party’s industrial relations policy that every employer has to give a prospective employee an invitation to join the trade union movement when they apply for a job. That is Labor Party policy. It is written and enshrined in their policy that they issue an information statement to any new employee to give them an invitation to join the trade union movement. On the weekend, the Leader of the Opposition said that union bosses are just another voice. He declared on Sunday—it was classic Kev—that union bosses could ‘jump in the lake’ if they had a problem with what he had to say. You can imagine Kevin Reynolds and Joe McDonald shaking in their jackboots as Kevin Rudd says to them—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will refer to the Leader of the Opposition by his title.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the Leader of the Opposition says, ‘I’m going to force you to jump in the lake if you don’t agree with what I have to say.’ They would be shaking in their boots. You would even have Joe McDonald’s braces pop up—‘No ticket, no start’ and away they go.

You would have thought that, at the same time as the Leader of the Opposition saying he was not going to be controlled by the union bosses, he would have stood up for one of his senators that was being knifed in the Senate. I picked up the Australian and the Age and they were a great read. In the Age Senator Linda Kirk, who has only been a Labor Senator for South Australia for a short period of time, said:

The trade union vote is such that they can get up their own ...

…            …            …

If you don’t have a good trade union base, it is impossible to get into a winnable position, even with branch support—

in the Labor Party. Senator Kirk was disendorsed by the Labor Party because Joe de Bruyn did not like what she had to say. She says in the Australian today:

Joe de Bruyn said that if I did not vote against the stem-cell legislation I could not expect support from the union for preselection.

He singled me out ... I wasn’t prepared to toe the union line.

…            …            …

Yes, I have lived by the union and died by the union.

I went back to the Leader of the Opposition’s interview on the Sunday program when he was asked about a shoppies union official, Mr Farrell, who was coming into replace Senator Kirk. He said:

He’s a very effective, very effective person who will actually bring a lot of experience and a lot of balance also in to the ranks of the Parliamentary Labor Party ...

Balance! Another union official coming into the Labor Party in the Senate to deliver balance! I thought to myself, ‘Hang on, how many senators from South Australia representing the Labor Party are former trade union officials?’ Sixty per cent. This takes it up to 80 per cent. If that is balance in the way the Leader of the Opposition says he wants balance, there is no room for any dissenting voice from the trade union bosses when it comes to Labor Party preselection. We should not forget, and the Australian people will not forget. Every member of the parliamentary Labor Party is a member of the trade union movement and now they are getting rid of people of conscience and replacing them with more union bosses so that they can toe the union line.