Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, as you'd be aware, the SDA, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, is campaigning strongly for superannuation to be paid to people who are under 18, no matter how many hours they work in a week. I want to make some observations about that. Firstly, the Labor Party has—tragically for the country and tragically for many, many millions of Australians—listened very closely to the shoppies for many decades now. Because the Labor Party has listened so closely to the shoppies for so long, this country has been held back.

We could have had marriage equality many, many years before we eventually got it, and we didn't get it because of the stranglehold that the shoppies have got on the Labor Party. We could have had real, true, needs based funding through the Gonski reforms, if it hadn't been for the stranglehold that the shoppies have over the Australian Labor Party. We could have had an effects test in our competition law many, many years before we finally got it, if it weren't for the stranglehold that the shoppies have over the Australian Labor Party. Every time the Labor Party has looked in the last 30 years to do progressive, social and economic reform, there have been the shoppies, holding the Labor Party back and holding this country back. It's been a disgrace, and it's led to this country being a less progressive, less fair place than it should have been. My question to you, Minister, is: having been under a stranglehold from the shoppies for so long, to the detriment of this country and to the detriment of millions of Australians, why aren't you listening to the shoppies now that they're actually advocating for something that is positive for this country?