Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

So employers who expect an increase in productivity in exchange for handing over a wage increase are dinosaurs. Under this government’s system, employers have two choices: comply or die. The message is: ‘Comply with the extortionate demands of militant unions like the MUA or die because we will shut you down through strike action.’ This is the system which Minister Gillard was defending but a few days ago as working well. There is escalating strike action in Western Australia, the powerhouse of the national economy, but the system is working well.

Let us be clear about one thing. The minister in this place and the minister in the other place have failed to condemn the actions of the MUA. The fact that they have done the exact opposite—they have welcomed the backdown by Total Marine Services to the MUA’s demands—confirms the quote by Mr Knott of AMMA that ‘acts of virtual piracy’ are now being allowed to occur under Labor’s Fair Work regime.

Under Labor’s IR laws, the government actively encourages companies to cave in to extortionate demands from unions. But what is worse is the utter hypocrisy of those on the other side for taking the stance that they have in relation to the MUA—accepting the wage claim with no productivity offset—whilst at the same time the Prime Minister of this country lauds himself on national television, making grandiose policy statements calling for Australians to work harder and longer, to increase productivity, to raise the living standards of this country. That is utter hypocrisy, and the Prime Minister should be ashamed of himself.

But then again, when unions provide financial backing to the Labor Party, the Labor Party really have no choice but to deliver on their promises to them. In November of last year, Kevin Reynolds, the great militant unionist from the CFMEU in Western Australia, said that the Labor Party:

… makes all sorts of promises to us—

the union—

to get our money.

Quite frankly, we should stop calling them political donations and call them for what they really are, tied grants: ‘We’ll give you some money and, when you get into government, you’d better deliver on your promise.’ Mr Rudd should be supporting the Premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, who has warned the union bosses that these types of wage demands that the MUA have secured will mean that more construction and more fabrication will go offshore. It is a national disgrace.