Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks for the talking points, Senator Lines. It is always a pleasure. Senator Lines is Deputy Chair of the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, so we have spent a lot of time examining this particular piece of legislation and consulting broadly with union organisations, the broader community and obviously the trade union movement. And pretty much everyone falls in along party lines, as it were. But we did do, Senator Lines, was take this policy to an election and we won that election. You ask why we bring in legislation that the Australian people actually voted for at the last federal election, why we bring it in to the Senate, why we bring it in to the House of Representatives. That is why: because they voted for it.

So I again rise to add my voice to the calls for greater accountability and transparency, not only in the trade union movement but across registered organisations. I am not of the belief that, simply because you are a volunteer in a registered organisation, the people you represent and the people whose money you administer should not be entitled to a level of governance that gives them faith and confidence that the board looking after their interests and indeed millions of their dollars is doing so with their best interests at heart. I think those hardworking Australians who are members of trade unions have a lot to be concerned about in terms of how the leadership of various unions—not all unions, but a great number—have actually used their money and their influence over time.

From Labor Party senators' discussions and debates around this bill before the Senate today, one would think the royal commission into the trade union movement was a waste of taxpayers' money. I will tell you what is a waste of people's money: when you look at the revelations coming out of the royal commission and the millions of dollars of hardworking low- to middle-income earners across this country that the leaderships amongst the trade union movement have wasted. It just beggars belief! We come here and we have these same debates along party lines.

I am not somebody who thinks that trade unions do not have a legitimate role in a civil society. Absolutely not. I was a president of a student union. I think the trade union movement has done great things for the Australian worker over a long period of time. But enough is enough. We need to restore faith in the trade union movement for the honest Australian worker.

It is very sad to stand here today—and the senators who are elected by those very hardworking Australian union members, whose dollars go to fund their preselection campaigns, whose money and votes and influence is used by the likes of Cesar Melhem in my home state of Victoria. You are shaking your head, Senator Polley—through you, Chair.

Senator Polley interjecting—

Do you want to come down to Victoria? Do you want to come and have a look at the Andrews government? Do you want to talk about Mr Pakula? Do you want to talk about Cesar Melhem? Do you want to talk about how hardworking Victorians' money and votes are being used and abused by the Victorian Labor Party? I am happy to have that conversation. I will take you to them. We will have the meeting.

Senator Polley interjecting—

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

Because I have, in the interests of regional Australians' jobs—