Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I make my contribution, can I just make it clear that I have the greatest of respect for Senator Eggleston. I sincerely mean that. I know that the fine work that he did through the Pilbara region of Western Australia in his past life will never be forgotten. Senator Eggleston, we are going to miss you because you are one of the gentlemen. But to say that the minerals resource rent tax has frightened the miners off! Let us just get one thing very clear: it is a profit based tax. I do not know how many times—through you, Mr Deputy President—I have stood here and defended a profit based tax on our miners, on our commodities, on our resources, and I say sincerely that it is a far better designed tax than the royalty nonsense that we have now. But, Senator Eggleston, to say that we have frightened off all these miners!

I must be mistaken, but I have just seen record profits with Rio Tinto and with BHP on their iron ore—thank goodness we have got that in Western Australia. But, if you are not making a superprofit of, what, $75 million—I am confused now because of the nonsense coming from that side—you do not pay the tax. Let me think. If you are a miner, or let us just say you are a businessperson of any industry, if you make a profit of $75 million and you are going to pay a tax, would that stop you investing in your business? Come on, Senator Eggleston! I was having a giggle. I had to hide, I actually had to duck down behind the seat, because I was trying not to giggle. I wear glasses, but I could see on your face that you did not even believe what you were saying.

But let us talk about this nonsense of Minister Shorten going across to the MUA state conference in Perth. Are you ready for this, everyone? This is breaking news for the media. Damn, I was invited too, and—do you know what?—I really wanted to go, but I contacted Chris Cain, the secretary of the MUA and a good friend of mine. I knew Chris long before he was the secretary of the MUA. I actually organised with his brother John Cain at the TWU—a damn good Labor family. I apologised, 'Sorry, Chris, I couldn't be there,' and I spoke to Minister Shorten last week because he was going across. I said: 'Great. Please pass on my best to the MUA.'

In Senator Abetz's terrible description of working-class people and representatives of organised labour as 'thugs', Chris Cain must be a real thug, because when he took over the MUA he had a membership of some 600; he now has 4½ thousand members. What does that tell me? In Western Australia there must be a heck of a lot of seamen and a heck of a lot of waterside workers who want the MUA to represent them in their negotiations.

I stood shoulder to shoulder with Chris Cain on the picket lines in 1998 when a former Liberal industrial relations minister, Peter Reith, decided with his good mate Chris Corrigan, with the full support of no less than John Howard, that it was a fantastic idea that we should replace Australian waterside workers with fly-in labour or labour that was trained in Dubai. I saw that there were Alsatian dogs on the gates with thugs—I will use that word 'thugs'—in balaclavas. In all my years of organised labour and being around organised labour and working-class men and women, representing them in the workforce as a truck driver and as a union organiser, I never, ever, ever remember pulling on a balaclava. I never remember anyone from the MUA pulling on a balaclava to go and talk to working men and women about their rights and occupational health and safety on their worksite. But it was all very well for the other side of the chamber to stand there as they did, shoulder to shoulder, one on one, absolutely congratulating Peter Reith at the time, and Chris Corrigan, that it was all right to have thugs in balaclavas with Alsatian dogs. Come on! Thank goodness, Australian people are not that dumb. Thank goodness, Australian people can see through the rhetoric and the rubbish coming from that side of the chamber.

I do not have the time to say this, but I must say quite clearly that $3.7 billion in infrastructure spending has been committed to Western Australia. This is under the Gillard government. In all those years of the Howard government, we were left behind in Western Australia. It was all very well for the Liberal feds to stick their hand up to take the money that they could take from Western Australia, but did they return it in infrastructure? Did they what! Absolutely not. I have a list of things that I would love to go through with you, Mr Deputy President, to see the look on the faces of that side of the chamber: a list of the infrastructure projects that have been committed to and are underway and will be finished in the next year or so— (Time expired)