Mr RANDALL (1:54 PM) —It is my privilege to speak on the Workplace Relations Amendment (Prohibition of Compulsory Union Fees) Bill 2002. This bill has been introduced to address the hundreds of certified agreements that contain bargaining service fee clauses. In some cases, fees have been set at $500 a year. It is a figure often well in excess—as we have already heard acknowledged by the other side—of the union dues which would be demanded of workers. These fees that are being demanded by unions of non-union members are a backdoor to compulsory unionism and, therefore, are inconsistent with the freedom of association provisions of the Workplace Relations Act.

I say in the most decisive way that this is just another form of extortion. I am going to be pointing out the case of compulsory union dues in my state of Western Australia as they relate to this bill. It is disgraceful. Western Australia is in a state of anarchy and is currently under siege by the unions where, on building sites all around the CBD, signs say `No ticket, no start'. What sort of message does that send to the rest of the community? The `No ticket, no start' signs are in contravention of the laws, yet they still remain there with the support of the state Labor government. In fact, Geoff Gallop, the state Labor Premier of Western Australia, from his office in Governor Stirling Tower, can see these signs all around Perth, and he should feel ashamed that he is allowing this to go unchecked in Western Australia.

This form of extortion has to be stopped. One way that it can be stopped is that people who do not wish to be a member of a union are not charged this so-called service fee. I hear all these bizarre arguments about them getting the rights. That is just like saying that, if somebody goes and negotiates an individual agreement, then everybody else on the work site should get that same agreement and the person who negotiated that agreement can then charge all the other workers on the site a fee for having got himself his own workplace agreement. How bizarre and how stupid is that!

The Cole royal commission has pointed out quite clearly that compulsory union fees in Western Australia have got out of control. Recently a particular gentleman in Western Australia called Joe McDonald, who is the secretary of the CFMEU and is one of the biggest thugs in the union movement in this country, with a bunch of other thugs, decided to roll up to a work site. They arrived there en masse, surrounded the work site and closed in on the workers—so much for looking after the workers. The biggest myth in this country is that the Labor Party are there for the workers. They are not there for the workers; they are there for themselves. These subcontractors who wanted to get on with the job of building in the CBD in Perth were then herded into a crib room and were locked in by Joe McDonald and his thugs, who started belting into the building, smashing the glass of the crib room, rocking it and trying to tip it upside down with the workers inside until they decided to join the union.

This is not fantasy; this is on the record; this is evidence given to the Cole royal commission. This is the way that the union movement, with the compliance of the Labor Party in Western Australia, go about collecting compulsory union fees from their members. If you think that is freedom of association and that is democracy in this country, you have to think again. That is why we have to make sufficient industrial laws in this country to stop this sort of union thuggery. It is adding to the cost of building and productivity in this country. It is taking away the freedom of association and the freedom of rights of men and women workers in this country. The Labor Party think they support workers, but they are now stopping these people working on these sites. People are not putting money into the construction of buildings in Perth because the add-on costs that the unions demand of their workers are just out of control. The state Labor government under its workplace relations minister, Mr Kobelke, is a very weak sop.

The SPEAKER —Order! It being 2.00 p.m., the debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 101A. The debate may be resumed at a later hour and the member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed.