Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An email that my office received today said:

I am in the Craig thompson electorate of Dobell and I am horrified at the allegations about him. I feel the enquiry has taken far too long and it should be finalised and we should be told what is going on. I didn't vote for him and I and a lot of my friends in the area want this sorted out now. Julia Gillard has to answer the questions. I watched question time today and there were no questions answered again. We want answers.

My office has been receiving lots of emails in relation to the Fair Work so-called inquiry. The issues that Fair Work Australia need to deal with in the Craig Thomson and Health Services Union matter are not so complex as to have required over three years. Indeed, we were told at Senate estimates in recent times that the first complaint about the Health Services Union was made in January 2009. Here we are in February 2012 and we still do not have an outcome. As I have been able to say on a previous occasion, the Watergate investigation into a President of the United States took half the time that the investigation into this matter has taken thus far with Fair Work Australia's investigations into Mr Thomson and the Health Services Union.

This specific issue that I want to address this evening is either the administrative incompetence or the institutional go-slow within Fair Work Australia. I am not sure which it is, but I am concerned. On 29 August last year my office put in a freedom of information request seeking documents relating to this matter. We were told flat-out that we would not be given any documents, nor would we be given a list of the docu­ments they had to which they would not give us access. As a result, we had to appeal to the Information Commissioner. The Informa­tion Commissioner made Fair Work Austra­lia reconsider their position and we were given a substantive number of documents on 29 December 2011, a very convenient time of year to receive them. That aside, this request took four months to be fulfilled, and only after the Information Commissioner decided to intervene. Then just on 8 February this year, we were given another lot of 135 pages of information, saying that they had been somehow overlooked. We will pursue that at estimates.

It is interesting that it was only when I indicated to the Senate committee secretariat that we wished to have the freedom of information officer responsible called, and we made another appeal to the Information Commissioner, that these extra 135 pages all of a sudden materialised. I do not know what is causing these sorts of difficulties within the administration of Fair Work Australia. What I do know is that there is a go-slow in relation to everything including requests for freedom of information. What I also do know is that there has been an endless tribe of ex-trade union officials appointed to positions within Fair Work Australia.

When Ms Gillard set up Fair Work Australia as the workplace relations minister, she promised the Australian people via her leader at the time, Mr Rudd, that there would not be an endless tribe of trade union officials appointed to positions within Fair Work Australia. But like her promise on the carbon tax and of not changing the definition of marriage and so many other things, Ms Gillard simply broke her promise. Of the 10 commissioners that Labor has appointed to Fair Work Australia, eight are ex-trade union officials and the other two are ex-bureaucrats or public servants. It seems not a single bit of talent in the private sector was worthy of appointment to Fair Work Australia. When it comes to officials within Fair Work Australia, we have the manager, Mr Tim Lee, a former trade union official appointed. What a coincidence, what serendipity. What a pool of talent exists within the trade union leadership that they can get all these appointments onto the commission and onto the administrative side of things within Fair Work Australia. But this Mr Lee, who presided over the three years of non-determination of the Craig Thomson matter, has now been rewarded with the position of commissioner in Fair Work Australia. And, if that is not bad enough, with whom who do they backfill Mr Lee's position? Yet again, another ex-trade union official. It is nonstop. Let us not have this nonsense anymore that these positions in Fair Work Australia are simply appointed on merit. It is just getting a bit too coincidental.

On top of the delay occasioned by Fair Work Australia in relation to the freedom of information request made by my office and my concerns about it, we have now had the former manager, or industrial registrar, of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, Mr Doug Williams, come out and take the unprecedented step of speaking publicly. He has said that, under his stewardship, this matter of Craig Thomson would have been resolved a lot quicker than it is being undertaken at the moment. He could see no reason why this matter has dragged on for three years, still without resolution in sight. Australia's premier political newspaper, the Australian, has editorialised in favour of a royal commission about the go-slow that has occurred within Fair Work Australia. Ms Kathy Jackson, the lady who blew the whistle in relation to the Health Services Union, has complained as well.

There are other issues associated with this as well. Clearly, Labor's dirt unit has a file, which they are peddling around, seeking to besmirch Ms Jackson. I have got no brief for Ms Jackson. I do not know whether what she says is right or wrong. But, clearly, what she is saying needs to be determined and finalised. But what has not been disputed by anybody in the Labor government is that, within this document that Labor's dirt unit has, there is a list of the telephone calls made by Ms Kathy Jackson. I call on the government to explain to the Australian people how the government came into possession of that document and by whom that document was prepared.

This is the sleazy underbelly of the trade union leadership fighting hard among themselves and then using the offices of a Labor government to help push their cause. If the Labor government can be involved, using their dirt unit to peddle this sort of information, then you know one thing: they are not concentrating on the issues that everyday Australians—such as the members of the Health Services Union, who contribute their hard earned money to try to buy some support and protection for themselves via their trade union—are facing. Instead their money has been wasted—$100,000 of it, it would seem—on prostitutes and other things. Those members are entitled to an answer. The Australian people are entitled to an answer as to why this is taking so long.

There is no doubt that Mr Craig Thomson, by these delays, is being kept on political life support and he in turn is keeping the Green-Labor alliance Gillard government on political life support as well. This issue needs to be resolved, and quickly. The delays that we are experiencing to date are simply unacceptable and cannot continue.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I remind honourable senators that legislation committees meet next week to consider estimates, commenc­ing on Monday at 9 am. Program details will be published on the Senate website. The Senate stands adjourned and will meet again on Monday, 27 February at 10 am.

Senate adjourned at 19:42