Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

This is another one, unions again: $1.5 billion in assets, $900 million in estimated annual revenue stream. You would actually think, with that type of profit—I don't know about you, colleagues—that you would look at actually reducing the membership fees of the members.

Let me tell you about, again, the AWU. The AWU earlier this year committed to raising its standard membership fees by more than $50 per year, but on top of that they're going to index it to inflation. In Victoria the CFMEU construction division charges $800 per year—a hundred dollars higher than it was three years ago. I can only assume that because of the number of fines it has racked up, tens of millions of dollars, it needed to raise the membership fees of its members so that it could pay the fines that it is incurring. This is an absolute disgrace!