Page 1150 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2016
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evidence, as has just been written out, points to the fact that it is the opposite. Hiding behind workplace deaths is disgusting. Just as Mr Jon Stanhope said, it is the unions and these factions that have corrupted the party. He has called for an end to the rorting in the party that has seen it become the plaything of a handful of union-based factional leaders.
Mr Rattenbury tried to claim that this was nothing to do with him, that it has not been through cabinet. How on earth did the Chief Minister sign it as an ACT government document, sign it as the Chief Minister, if, as Mr Rattenbury says, it is a Labor Party document? We now have members of this government denying that this is an ACT government document, saying that it is a Labor Party document even though it is labelled “ACT government” and signed by Mr Barr as Chief Minister. What the hell is going on, Madam Assistant Speaker?
Mr Rattenbury, I remind members—I did not talk too much about the Greens in my tabling speech—is bankrolled by the CFMEU. His party is bankrolled by the CFMEU to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. When you are looking for a motive for Mr Rattenbury to try to excuse what is happening, to deny that this had anything to do with him or that it was an ACT government document when clearly it is, I remind members that this is a document that bankrolls Mr Rattenbury’s party. It is an MOU that benefits the militant unions financially; then those militant unions donate to the Labor Party and the Greens; then the Labor Party and the Greens in this place support the MOU. It is a money-go-round. And who pays? Who pays, Madam Assistant Speaker? I will tell you who pays. It is the ratepayers, who see more being paid for contracts than should be paid, and it is businesses out there who are trying to do ethical business and cannot possibly operate in an environment that is so corrupted by this government.
What this shows today, by Mr Barr’s words and Mr Rattenbury’s words—and I assume they speak for everybody else in this government—is in essence that Mr Barr has sold his soul to the CFMEU. He has sold his soul to the CFMEU. It is the price for support of the CFMEU for Mr Barr and for Mr Rattenbury: financial support for their parties. The price that they have paid is the integrity of government. That is the price to get the political support of the CFMEU, to get the financial support of the CFMEU, to get the political support of UnionsACT, who, I see in the paper today, are going to be going out and targeting swing voters.
Mr Alex White was very proud to say that his members would be out there knocking on doors. You can wait for your family members to get a knock on the door from a CFMEU organiser, with his militant T-shirt on, saying, “Sign this pledge.” That is the sort of government that we have here now—one that supports that militant unionism.
And through the signing of the MOU, he is enabling coercion of business. He is basically saying to the CFMEU and others, “Here is a document that you can use to wave in front of business to support your coercion, to make money for yourself, to make sure that that money then comes back into the Labor Party in the tens of thousands to support the party.”
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