Page 3380 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 22 August 2018
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sick leave, annual leave, and strong workplace health and safety laws. The historic buildings in The Rocks in Sydney were not preserved because the developers who were intending to destroy them just changed their minds. The Royal Botanic Gardens remain today as a jewel in Sydney’s crown, rather than a carpark for the Opera House, because ordinary people stood up and fought back, supported by the BLF.
Of course, we should never accept or condone criminal behaviour by unions, or by banks. But the current federal Liberal government, like the Howard government before it, is doing what it can to seek to criminalise and punish legitimate union organising while doing everything it can to protect its mates in big business, including the banks. Those opposite in this place are their little cheer squad making ridiculous, at times highly offensive and at times slanderous, arguments about individuals and unions.
As we have heard, and as I alluded to at the beginning, it was only recently that the former Canberra Liberals leader was forced to formally apologise for a defamatory comment made about the former CFMEU ACT branch secretary. As I said, this is not the first time the Canberra Liberals have had to issue an apology to the CFMEU for defamation, defamation of an organisation and its leaders that exist solely for the benefit of working people
This is because those opposite find that, outside the privilege of this place, their attitude towards workers and their unions can very quickly see them at odds with the law. I will not go through their approach to the case of Mr Lomax, which Minister Rattenbury has outlined, as he has so much of the Liberals’ terrible record in this regard.
Madam Speaker, I also spoke last night about the prices and income accord achieved under the Hawke-Keating government. The accord shows what is possible when unions, government and business genuinely work together. The accord delivered significant improvements for Australian workers, including programs that we now take for granted like Medicare and compulsory superannuation.
Laurie Carmichael’s achievements are the achievements of unionists and the Labor movement and all that stand in solidarity with us. Like all in the Labor movement, Laurie fought on behalf of workers for a better standard of living, for a better future and for opportunity for all. I am proud to be part of a movement that has amongst its ranks champions like Laurie Carmichael and people like Sally McManus and Michele O’Neil who lead the charge today, and people like the members, delegates, organisers and officials of the CFMMEU.
I am proud to stand and fight for a better deal for workers, for better pay and secure entitlements, for fairer bargaining and for safer workplaces. The question to those opposite is: why don’t you fight for these things? And the answer is clear. There is no mistaking what drives the ideological obsession of those opposite. They are not just anti-union; they are anti-worker. They deride the fairer and more equal future that the Labor movement fights for. Mr Wall proudly says that he will not support anything in this place that improves things for workers and their families.
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