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Incoming Employment Minister Eric Abetz pledges to stamp out union corruption
ABC – 29 minutes ago..
Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott's new employment minister, Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz, says one of his first priorities will be stamping out union corruption.
Senator Abetz was yesterday named in Mr Abbott's Cabinet, awarded the portfolio of Employment, Assisting the PM on the Public Service.
He says one of his first ports of call as employment minister will be to launch "an attack on corruption in the trade union movement".
Senator Abetz says the Coalition's policy to raise penalties for union corruption, in line with the corporate sector, has been welcomed by union leaders including Australian Workers' Union boss Paul Howes.
"We want to establish the Registered Organisations Commission to ensure that some of the corruption we have seen in the Health Services Union etc is not allowed to occur again," he said.
"We have a penalty regime in that area which we're suggesting should be exactly the same for company directors.
"If you as a company director rip off shareholders, you face the risk of five years jail or $320,000 worth of fines.
"If you're a trade union official and rip off your members, you face a $10,000 fine.
"We don't think that there is any material difference or any moral difference between a company director ripping off shareholders and a union boss ripping off members, so we believe the penalty regime should be enhanced.
"This is not an attack on the trade union movement, it is an attack on corruption in the trade union movement." Senator Abetz says union leaders have told him the policy will enhance the reputation of trade unions.
Abetz says Coalition has mandate to implement its policies He says the incoming government is clear about its industrial relations policy during the election, and he says the Coalition has won the right to implement it.
"The Coalition set out a very comprehensive policy that Tony Abbott and I launched four months before the election," he said.
"It was very clear for every body to read, 38 pages of detailed policy and during the election neither Labor nor some more extreme elements of the trade union movement were able to lay a glove on our policy.
"We believe we have a mandate for our policy, we will seek to implement our policy.
"Given that Labor and the union movement were unable to campaign against it, I would trust that they would give us the opportunity to implement the mandate." Senator Abetz says he will also enact Coalition policy by resurrecting the Australian Building and Construction Commission, first established under the Howard government.
"The re-introduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission is vitally important to ensure we get the rule of law again on our building sites," he said.
Senator Abetz is also the Coalition's leader in the Senate.
He says the appointment is the greatest privilege of his political career.
Senator Abetz says it has been more than three decades since a Tasmanian last held the position.
"I was reminded that the last Tasmanian to hold that position was a distinguished Labor Senator Ken Wreidt in 1975, and before that Sir Denham Henty from my side of politics, so it's been a long time between drinks for Tasmanian senators," he said.
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