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

Another one, Senator Brandis—and employers Coles and Woolworths. Ewan Hannan has revealed today that, in exchange for Coles and Woolworths collecting membership fees of SDA union members, the SDA then gives back to Coles and Woolworths a so-called administration fee of 10 per cent. What this means is that 10 per cent of these union members' membership fees goes straight back to their employer. The question then becomes, though: what does the SDA or the employer actually get for this exchange? Well, nobody knows, because, until recently, nobody actually knew of this little transaction. Let's do the math. SDA members can pay up to $500 per year in membership fees to the SDA, and $50 of that $500 then goes back to Coles or Woolies. All I can say there is: it must be a very, very complex deduction process to cost 10 per cent of the membership fees. But, in terms of the bigger picture, this is just another example of concern about the financial deals that are being done between big unions and big employers. As I informed the Senate last week, union membership has now been in free fall for many, many years, and yet, when you look at their asset base, $1.5 billion, and their revenue stream, $900 million, you have to ask: where does the money come from?