Sue Boyce (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is somewhat sad that Senator Cameron, who I think is a great proponent of democracy in Australia and would be a proponent of democracy within the union movement, is making what appear to be excuses for behaviour that I would have thought he would condemn. I would have thought that he would be one of the people foremost in saying, 'I want an organisation that I can be proud of,' and I very much hope that that is where we will end up with some of the inquiries that go on. But I would contend that there has been in some unions and at some levels systemic corruption, a systemic lack of interest in the rights of members, systemic indifference to the needs of members and systemic featherbedding going on. Wherever that happens, this Senate has a duty to attempt its very best to ensure that it is exposed.

I would like to look at articles out of today's paper that demonstrate that in other areas there is action taken and there is the availability of criminal and civil penalties against those who behave wrongly. We have a headline about fears that a $7 million insider trading deal involving the ABS and others is in fact simply the tip of the iceberg. That is terrible. That should not happen. But ASIC and others have the responsibility under the legislation to ensure that it does not happen. Here we have a case where it has actually come out, where the alleged offenders will be taken through the courts and forced to come up with a solution. This involved the ABS and it was found out through the auditing that went on between the ABS and other areas.

We have ASIC, the ANAO and numerous other bodies oversighting the way government departments and agencies and corporations function. But the minute you suggest that there be a similar body to oversight the way unions behave we have the most bizarre and ridiculous nonsense coming out of the opposition about the fact that these are tiny little groups involving volunteers with scarcely a cent to their name. It is just nonsense. The opposition know it is nonsense and they know that work has to be done to improve the transparency of unions.

If Fair Work Australia had demonstrated the ability to deal with these matters when they had the chance with Craig Thomson and the HSU, if we could have said, 'My goodness, that was shocking, but it is a one-off issue; it has got nothing to do with any other unions or the way any other unions function,' then that would be fine. We could say, 'Okay. Fair Work Australia should just get its act together and do better next time.'

But that is not what happened and that is not where the problems lie. I would love to be able to stand here in a few years time and say we probably do not need a Registered Organisations Commissioner anymore; the job is done. But certainly the job has not even begun yet. I would hope that the majority of members of the Labor Party, the majority of union members and the majority of members of this place would want to see the union movement cleaned up. They would want to see the same amount of accountability and transparency in the way these organisations are run as you would expect to see in any other organisation of the size.