Centre Alliance senators say union crackdown should apply for corporate CEOs as well
Getting tough on militant unions that see court fines as the cost of doing business isn’t enough, says Centre Alliance, who says new law may need to extend to corporate CEOs and pollies.
Misbehaving corporate bosses could face the same penalties as thuggish union leaders under a deal to be pushed by Centre Alliance to get the Coalition’s workplace integrity laws through parliament.
The Federal Government has tabled new laws, inspired by a union-focused royal commission, aimed at clamping down on workplace disruptions.
Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said the new laws will give more power and greater flexibility to the Federal Courts to deregister law-breaking unions and take action against certain militant parts of unions and their officials.
Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick has told the Sunday Mail his party supports the measures in principle providing it is not just unions that are caught in the clampdown.
“There needs to be parity between union officials and corporate leaders, directors and CEOs,” Senator Patrick said. “The party is considering extending it to politicians.”
The votes of Senator Patrick, and his colleague Senator Stirling Griff, along with two other crossbenchers are expected to be needed to get the laws passed in parliament with Labor and the Greens not likely to support them.
“The Government’s motives in my view are genuine in that they want to make sure that conduct that some judges have been expressing frustration over can be dealt with,” Senator Patrick said.
“Some judges have found that the court fines some unions are receiving (for entering worksites illegally) are seen as the cost of doing business for the unions – they are not a deterrent.”
New laws would make it possible to deregister entire unions and stop the mergers of unions.
However, Senator Patrick said the recent royal commission into the banking and finance sector had highlighted a raft of behaviours that warranted similar action.
“There some abhorrent conduct and while it is fair to say the Government is looking at ways to deal with some of that misconduct, it would appear as though the directors of those companies have got away with that conduct scot-free,” he said.
When tabling the laws Mr Porter said the Government had taken the opportunity to adopt several amendments to more closely align these reforms with their corporate equivalents.
Senator Patrick said Centre Alliance would spend the next few months going through amendments to ensure the laws strike the right balance.