Mr GEORGIOU (2:14 PM) — My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Is the minister aware of proposals that would allow union bosses to enter small businesses, even when there are no union members employed in that business? What is the government's response to these proposals?

Mr ANDREWS (Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) —I thank the honourable member for Kooyong for his question. In response to him, I note that the Australian Labor Party platform will give union bosses access to businesses throughout Australia, even when there are no union members of those businesses. This is a platform that will give union bosses a foot in the door and an eye on the books of every business in Australia, even without union members being present. We know that this is binding on the Australian Labor Party because the Leader of the Opposition has told us that the federal platform is binding on every member of the Australian Labor Party.

I noted recently that the national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, Paddy Crumlin, was quoted as saying that the union `needs to be political in order to be industrial'. We saw the antics of the MUA in the past, which almost turned one of the largest and most strategic industries in Australia into a small business. The Labor Party's platform would do that for every industry in Australia. This is a platform which is indeed a political one—a platform written by the big union bosses for the big union bosses and, of course, paid for by the $40 million worth of donations from the unions to the Australian Labor Party. This comes at a time when just 17 per cent of workers in the private sector in Australia are members of a union. The Secretary of the ACTU, Mr Greg Combet, also speaking at the MUA conference recently, noted that the voting profile of union members was not much different from that of the general population—about 40 per cent voting Labor. He went on to say that this was a far cry from the overwhelming support Labor had enjoyed in previous generations. Of course, he is right. What we have here is a platform which is written by narrow sectional interests with political agendas. The union bosses will be given rights over ordinary workers in Australia, and the union bosses will be given rights over businesses both great and small.

This is not just hollow rhetoric coming from the government, because what we have seen in Western Australia is precisely this platform having been enacted by the Labor Gallop government. In South Australia, the Rann Labor government wants to enact the same platform. In Western Australia, the right of entry can be exercised by not only an authorised person but also a union official. So you can be the small mum and dad business operating from home with no union employees with the prospect of somebody coming and knocking on the door and saying, `I am representing the union. I want to enter your business. I want to look at the books.' That is what the Labor Party is proposing for business in Australia. No wonder the Financial Review editorial today commented:

Business is right to be worried. In the words of the small business organisation in Western Australia, business is afraid—very afraid—of the Labor Party. These are plans written by union bosses for union bosses. They will give unionists the right of entry into every business in Australia. This is just further proof that Labor is bad for business, bad for workers, bad for jobs and would be bad for Australia.