Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy, the truth is the truth. As much as you might not like hearing this, it is a shame and a disgrace, and you are now defending it.

Ah, but that was not only it! The Leader of the Opposition also failed to disclose $12,700 for this worker plus $11,000 for a part-time campaign worker that was donated by—guess which union? The AWU—what a surprise. He only included this in a late disclosure—again, how many before the royal commission, do you think? It was two days before the royal commission evidence he gave. That is No. 3.

What do we think is the fourth absolute disgrace is? It is Bill Shorten himself cutting workers' conditions. Isn't that somewhat ironic—trade union members are paying for unions to represent them, and what is he doing? He is doing what I would call dodgy deals to cut their wages. How did this happen? The commission heard that under the 2006 Cleanevent agreement, signed under the authority of Bill Shorten as national secretary of the AWU, workers were deprived of penalty rates, public holiday pay, overtime and shift loadings. This was under a deal authorised by Bill Shorten himself.

As Victorian secretary of the AWU, Bill Shorten also approved an agreement to allow a group of mushroom pickers to be fired and mostly rehired as casual labour. It saved the company millions from the abolition of overtime rates, amongst many other savings. This was from a man who purports to be standing up for the workers of this country—absolutely disgraceful. That is No. 4.

What is No. 5? No. 5 relates to Boral. On construction sites in Melbourne, the law is determined by the CFMEU. Pointing to numerous examples of secondary boycotts, cartel behaviour, racketeering, intimidation, illegal black-banning and criminal conspiracy, Boral CEO Mike Kane lashed the CFMEU as 'an organisation that openly admits it has and will continue to break the law'. Kane revealingly stated that on construction sites in Melbourne, the law does not apply; the law is determined by the CFMEU. Guess who they employ to do their enforcement? The Comancheros.

No. 6: Bill Shorten's close friend and AWU associate Cesar Melhem and false invoice incidents. The royal commission heard evidence that Cesar Melhem repeatedly issued false invoices to companies marked 'training', 'OH&S' or similar when they were actually payments for union membership. These were not small amounts of money. Any amount of money would be wrong but this was for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The AWU membership roll contained the names of workers and horseracing jockeys, who had never agreed to become members of the union. Mr Melhem also made a side deal in which cleaning company Cleanevent agreed to pay the union $25,000 per year for three years—$75,000—for undisclosed services in order to retain an enterprise agreement that left their workers with substantially worse than award pay rates. That is an absolute disgrace. That is No. 6.

No. 7 of my top 10: Bill Shorten's close friend Cesar Melhem and the Industry 2020 slush fund—yet another sad saga involving them both. The royal commission heard evidence of a slush fund, euphemistically entitled 'Industry 2020' set up by former AWU state secretary and sitting ALP Victorian MLC Cesar Melhem. Despite being structurally separate from the AWU, this fund—aka the slush fund—received regular payments from companies which had EBAs with the union. It employed no staff and had no premises of its own. However, all Industry 2020 fundraisers were organised and run by AWU officials and used AWU resources. Through these fundraisers, Industry 2020 received contributions from other unions such as the Victorian branch of the NUW. The most high-profile Industry 2020 fundraiser was a $550 a head lunchtime function at Flemington Racecourse addressed by the then Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

What is no. 8 on the shame roll? It was the    CFMEU receiving leaked details from Cbus members. The private details of over 300 construction workers were leaked by the construction industry superannuation fund Cbus to the CFMEU. What a disgrace. As a result of the leaks, construction workers were contacted, intimidated and threatened by CFMEU officials. And guess who the CFMEU officials employ? The Comancheros.

One of the Cbus officials who leaked the information to the CFMEU gave evidence that she was absolutely terrified of what the New South Wales secretary of the CFMEU would do to her and her family if she told the royal commission the truth about this leak. When an organisation like the CFMEU who uses Comancheros to do their enforcement, it is amazing that this woman had the courage to come forward.

No. 9 on the role of shame is John Setka's threats. Allegations were made in the royal commission that the CFMEU had threatened contractors at the Pentridge Village residential development site to sign a CFMEU enterprise agreement and that they had pressured construction workers to join the union or otherwise face being black-banned. The developer testified that CFMEU state secretary John Setka demanded that the concreter Paul Costa be kicked off the Pentridge Village site simply because he was related to Daniel Grollo who Setka hated—again, utterly, disgraceful.

No. 10 on my list—and, as I said, I have a very long list and there are many, many more examples—is where a police officer arrested a former CFMEU official who gives evidence. ACT police arrested a former construction union organiser and previous Labor Party sub-branch president after he admitted to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in payments from tradesmen to help them win work. The CFMEU organiser was arrested after evidence revealed at the Canberra hearing of the commission. This was not of the commission's making; this was evidence he gave to the commission.

Mr Kivalu, who was president of the ALP's Dickson-Morning sub-branch in Canberra at the time he was allegedly involved in corruption, denied the cash payments constituted a bribe. When he resigned as the ALP sub-branch president, he was replaced with guess who? Another union official from the CFMEU who has also been the subject of adverse allegations at the commission—again, a pattern of behaviour time and time and time again.

Having a look at those facts and that evidence—and the weight of evidence—it became very apparent why those opposite and the Leader of the Opposition so staunchly support their trade union mates and their supporters. It is a story of utter shame, and sometimes I do not know how those opposite can possibly still support the trade unions, knowing exactly what the trade unions are doing to their workers.

It is very clear when you cannot discredit the facts that you try and discredit the man. That is exactly what is happening now with the royal commission: deny, attack, defend. Deny, attack, defend. Deny, attack, defend. If you concentrate on discrediting the commission enough, you are hoping that all of these facts will disappear. Let me tell you: they will not disappear—

Senator Bilyk interjecting—

no matter how hard you scream in this chamber. Deny, attack, defend—but the facts are here and the evidence is very, very clear.

So what are the changes that you are so opposed to? The government is making changes to remove unnecessary disclosure requirements on officers and organisations that were first included by the previous government's 2012 amendments to the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009. These changes will ensure that only disclosing officers, those whose duties relate to financial management of the organisations, must disclose their material personal interests; and officers no longer need to disclose the material personal interests of their relatives.

The bill now also ensures that financial officers with relevant experience can apply to the Registered Organisations Commission for an exemption. These are all issues that were identified by Labor as problems. They are problems that exist in the law as it stands today. They acknowledged it. They know it is still the case. They are problems created by Labor yet again, and we will fix them with this bill.

There is a pressing need for this bill and for the establishment of a registered organisations commission to protect union members' and the funds that come out of their hard-earned pay. As we have seen, time after time and again and again, that out of the royal commission and elsewhere something has to change. Somebody has to stand up for these workers, and it is for all of those reasons, that I support this bill.