Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

The unidentifiable common interest test. You've left everyone out there wondering what the hell is going to happen here. What I see written over this bill is union, union, union. This is payback from the Labor Party to the unions for all the funding and all the money that they have given you. This is basically about giving the unions the right to walk into businesses and with enterprise bargaining say 'Sign up here'. I can see it now. They're going to walk into the business and say to the employee, 'Do you want higher wages?' Of course they will. Who is stupid enough to say 'No, we don't'? When they get the agreement, they all want higher wages. 'Listen, mate, you sign up to the unions and we're going to go and fight for you for higher wages.' That is written all over this bill. Union, union, union.

I will tell you another thing. We've got a bill that you want to actually get through to this parliament. Where is Senator Pocock? I will tell him also. There are pages and pages of amendments. Even the government amendments are nine pages. You know what that tells me? If you were to go and buy a car and you had all these defects in the car, nine pages—and that's not just Labor; this is the Liberal Party, the Greens, David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie, all these amendments—'Listen, with this car, we're actually going to make changes here; these are the defects,' you know what it'd tell me? You're buying a frigging lemon. That's what it would tell me, and that's exactly what this bill tells me—that you have not researched it properly. You're rushing it through this parliament. You've got a rookie senator that you've talked into supporting this bill, and it's a real shame.

You cannot guarantee the people out there that they are going to get a rise in wages. There is a lack of workers out there. I'll inform you what's going on. A lot of businesses are actually paying their workers above the award just to get good staff. They want to hold onto them, so they are paying a lot of them above the award and all the other agreements—plus, plus, plus—that they want. But I'll also tell you what you're going to tie up here, because I've been a small-business person most of my life. You're going to have enterprise bargaining right across the board with a lot of these workers as well, instead of a single enterprise agreement with the worker. A lot of the workers are no-hopers, the ones that do not do a decent day's work. If you've got one person who works their guts out and does a good job and the other ones beside them are on their phone all day and don't work, productivity is down the bloody drain. You're going to tie them up into getting the same pay, the same rights, the same everything. That is going to really upset the worker who does his job and takes pride in his work and productivity, and that's what's going to happen as well.

This whole bill stinks. As I said, the Public Service hasn't even got its own act together. I say to you, clean up your own backyard before you start telling private enterprise how to run their businesses and whether they can afford it or not. You're going to drive a lot of these businesses into the ground who can't afford it, and you're pushing this onto them. You are actually going to create unemployment with this bill. It is ill thought out. It is not dealing with the real issues. There is not enough consultation. You're going to get rid of the ABCC because it suits the CFMMEU to get rid of it. They won't have to be answerable to anyone. They are nothing but thugs—not all; I'm talking about the officials—on these building sites that have destroyed small businesses. It has driven up the cost on these building sites by 30 per cent, and that's going to be the same effect again. Yet you think it's a good thing?

On your promises, I'll tell you, you don't have a mandate. When only 32 or 33 per cent of Australians voted for Labor, you don't have a mandate at all—not at all. The system got you the seats in here that give you government. That's not a mandate to me. A mandate is 50.1 per cent of the vote. You didn't get that. I don't believe you're listening to the Australian people.