James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Acting Deputy President Marshall, I am again privileged to be contributing to a debate with you back in the chair. Can I say how pleasing that is. It feels like the natural order of this place has been restored, and I hope there will be much more of it.

It is wonderful to begin a Monday morning in the Senate on such a positive note, with a terrific and important bill before the Senate, the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014. Mr Acting Deputy President, through you, can I please congratulate the minister for her leadership on this issue and on many other issues. This is a minister who will already go down as the minister who saved owner-driver truck drivers this year; this is a minister who will already go down as the minister who saved the CFA volunteers; and I hope, with the agreement of the Senate, in due course this will also be the minister who will go down as the minister who saved union members from being ripped off by dodgy union officials.

The contributions to the debate so far this morning, I think, have been very instructive. I listened carefully, as I always do, to Senator Cameron's contributions and, of course, to Senator Rhiannon's contributions as well. Although they were very passionate and erudite, as always, I thought it was very revealing to see what they chose to talk about and what they did not speak about. In fact, they spoke very little about the bill that is before us today. They spoke very little about its provisions, about what it seeks to do and about the problems that it seeks to address. Instead, they spoke at some length and in some detail about the union movement generally, about its achievements, its accomplishments and its role in society. Senator Rhiannon even talked about how some people in our society find it difficult to pay their rent or to find time off work to look after their kids. These are good and worthy topics and important issues, but not ones which relate to this bill directly or, frankly, in my view, even indirectly.

I would like this morning to return to the bill itself and talk about what it actually seeks to achieve, to see if we can help enlighten the Senate about what we are actually debating and focusing on this morning and throughout this week. The government is asking the Senate to ensure that both unions and employer organisations are subject to similar levels of transparency and accountability to those we require of companies. The Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Bill 2014 will establish a focused regulator to oversee unions and employer groups with strong powers to enforce the law. It will mean officials from unions and employer groups will be subject to similar standards to those of company directors under Corporations Law, including more thorough reporting and disclosure and, for those who break the law, bigger penalties.

This legislation is important because across Australia there are 47 unions and 63 employer groups, with annual revenues of $1.5 billion and assets of $2.5 billion. More than two million members trust these organisations with their money. Honest workers deserve to know their union or employer group is acting in their best interests. These organisations have special privileges under the law, and I think that it is appropriate that with those special privileges come reasonable obligations and expectations of capability and transparency. For example, these organisations are exempt from paying income tax. All Australians deserve to know, as a result of that, how they are being accountable for that privilege. Unions in particular have other special legal privileges that are not afforded to other organisations, companies or individuals in our society, such as the right of entry to a workplace. With such a special legal privilege I do not think it is unreasonable for them to be held at only the same standard as a company director or a corporation.

I will talk a little about how this legislation will work. The bill contains measures to improve the standard of governance of registered organisations and to deter wrongdoing. They include, for example, a focused regulator, to be called the Registered Organisations Commission with appropriate resources and powers modelled on those of corporate regulators, enhanced financial accountability provisions and meaningful sanctions that can be applied when any wrongdoing is revealed. Some of the new accountability measures for unions and employer groups will include requiring registered organisations to disclose remuneration paid to the top five highest-paid officers in their head office and any branches and requiring officers whose duties relate to financial management to disclose material personal interests, and ensuring officers do not make decisions on matters where they have a conflict of interest. It is difficult to understand what anyone would object to among those provisions. Perhaps that is why the senators who have spoken in opposition to this bill this morning have not referred to any of these provisions.

I note that Senator Dastyari is due to speak next. I have a challenge for him—that is to address the merits of the bill and of these provisions in particular. I look forward to hearing his specific concerns about these measures, if he is indeed joining with his colleagues and opposing this bill.