Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is almost un-Australian the way the Australian Labor Party continue to talk down the economy and continue to say untruths about the economy and misrepresent the facts. The simple fact is that, since this government has been in power, some 335,000 additional jobs have been created in this country, many of which are in the electorate of Canning. The previous Labor speaker seemed to be making a policy speech for Canning and not talking on the subject of this debate at all. But I am sure the people of Canning are worldly and intelligent enough not to follow the lies and lines of the Australian Labor Party and particularly the union movement.

One of the things that the Abbott government is doing to bolster the economy is creating new jobs through additional trade opportunities around the world. The China free trade proposal is a great example of that. We all know the benefits that will come from the China free trade agreement, and yet the Labor Party continue to talk it down. One would almost think that they are xenophobic and anti-Chinese in their approach to this particular proposal.

The lies that the union movement tell about the free trade agreement are legion. We understand why the Australian Labor Party are mouthing the words of the ETU and the CFMEU. It is because the union movement generally, including the ACTU and the ETU, control the Australian Labor Party. They determine the preselection of all of the senators sitting opposite. They control the parliamentary Labor Party. Most of the shadow cabinet are former union hacks. That might be okay if the union movement actually represented Australian workers, but the union movement represent only 17 per cent of Australia's workers. That means 83 per cent of Australian workers choose not to join a union. You can well understand why, when you see the miserable efforts of the unions to help workers. They are pretty good at helping themselves, as the royal commission has shown, and pretty good at putting their hands in the workers' pockets, but not much good at helping workers. That is why only 12 per cent of workers in the private sector—which is mining, agriculture, services, finance—choose to join a union. That is, 88 per cent of workers in those areas determine not to join a union. When you have the Electrical Trades Union continuing rogue house calls across the country to say the China free trade agreement will endorse electricians who do not meet our licensing or registration standards, that is simply a lie.