Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I compliment Senator O'Neill. She is definitely earning her donations from the trade union movement today. Where does that money come from? You have to understand that a large part of that, as disclosed by the commission, has come from industry. It has come from businesses. It has been corruptly obtained. We have heard of these secret commissions. This is money that would otherwise be spent by that company in the operation of its enterprise, in the employment of people and in the provision of services. But no. So what happens? Do you on the other side understand what trickle-down economics is? I doubt that you do, but here is what happens. Those are cost outlays that those companies have to meet, despite the fact that it is a corrupt payment. Where does it go? You want to talk about housing affordability? I will tell you what it does. It trickles down onto the job site. It trickles all the way down onto the job site, because these enterprises still want to make a profit for themselves. They still want to remain viable.

So you have got this trade union movement up one end, ripping the heart out of industry—some estimates suggest that the productivity losses are in double digits, that the additional costs, particularly in commercial construction, are in double digits. That is money that would remain in the cycle. When you make a profit in business—and fortunately I know a thing or two about that—you reinvest it in yourself. You start off with five employees. When you are more profitable, you grow your business. Most people, at least, grow their business; they are ambitious to grow their business. You employ 10 people. You employ 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100 people. Every cost that you have impacts on the viability of your business and impacts on your ability to employ people. So every red cent stolen or corruptly taken by the trade union movement, particularly in the construction industry, particularly the CFMEU—one of your biggest donors and a donor of our friends over there; they are sitting quietly but perhaps that might knock them out of their slumber and they might have something to say—is money that comes directly out of industry and commerce in this country. That is why, to the extent that there is any impact on low- and middle-income Australians, it is because it has been ripped out by these inefficiencies created by the trade union movement.