Page 1600 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
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Here is some media reporting, “The peak trade union body is increasing pressure on opposition leader Jeremy Hanson.” Here is a tweet tweeting the CFMEU. Here is another one, “On July 2 we need to put the Liberals last.” Here is another one, Unions ACT, “Big thanks to Mick Gentleman.” He is out there with UnionsACT. He was at a dinner together with UnionsACT. Here is another one—Yvette Berry. There they are. They sign the UnionsACT MOU. They get lots of money from unions through their donations. They allow the unions to go out there and campaign for them and they get a lot of money signing the MOU. And who gets to pay for this? Ultimately it is the ACT taxpayer and it is Canberra businesses that will suffer.
The CFMEU are out there tweeting as well. Alex White, what does he say? He is the signatory on the MOU. There is a picture of me on his Twitter page saying that I get donations from the mafia and gangland lawyers. This is a person that the Chief Minister is signing documents with to allow the unions to intimidate in the workplace. The person the Chief Minister has signed that document with saying this is all just about workplace safety is the same person tweeting these outrageous comments.
Mr Rattenbury: Have you listened to your own interjections in this place? They’re in exactly the same vein.
MR HANSON: There is an interjection.
Mr Rattenbury: Your interjections are just like that, Mr Hanson, and you know it.
MR HANSON: There is an interjection. These are extraordinary tweets. I invite you all to have a look at them to confirm that this is not about workplace safety. This is not in any sense trying to help workers; this is about trying to create a money-go-round and supporting power in this town—union power, Labor Party power, Greens Party power—to enable them to continue on in this circular arrangement where the government signs the MOU, the unions get out there and make a lot of money, they then prop up the Greens and the Labor Party, and it goes around and it goes around.
The fact that today the Greens and the Labor Party have said they are not going to support an inquiry to have a look at this issue in more detail is illustrative of the fact that these two parties want to keep this little cosy power arrangement with the CFMEU and UnionsACT going. They are the mutual beneficiaries of it. They get invited along to dinners together. They are beneficiaries of all the money that comes in from the donations. They are the beneficiaries of this group out there polling for them and putting adverts out for them. They can use the union movement—the CFMEU and UnionsACT—to put out attacks on their political opponents, and we have seen that directly. They have accused the Liberal Party of some pretty scurrilous things I would have to say.
Madam Deputy Speaker, I am disappointed but I am not overly surprised. What we are going to see in the lead-up the election is a lot more money coming out of the union movement into the Labor Party and the Greens. We will see a lot more activity out there campaigning because they both know that it is to their benefit, both financially and in terms of power, for this cosy little MOU to continue.
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