Hanson not yet sold on union bill

Pauline Hanson is refusing to deliver the government the Senate numbers needed to pass the Ensuring Integrity Bill.

Senator Pauline Hanson asking questions at a Senate Estimates hearing at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

Pauline Hanson is refusing to ­deliver the government the Senate numbers likely needed to pass the ­Ensuring Integrity Bill, declaring she will hold more talks with ­unions before deciding if One ­Nation will vote for the proposed union-restricting laws.

With Centre Alliance confirming on Sunday its two senators would back the bill, which was due to return to the Senate from Monday, the government requires the support of two One Nation senators or Jacqui Lambie to get the bill passed. Senator Lambie declined to comment but Senator Hanson said workers were under attack from free-trade agreements that have allowed an increase in foreign workers to compete for Australian jobs, and the original bill would have been a further attack on workers and unions.

“It’s important One Nation look closely at the final number of amendments the government ­released late Friday afternoon and liaise with union groups as well as their members before making any final decision on the Ensuring ­Integrity Bill,” she said.

“We’ve seen a number of bills rushed through previous parliaments with unintended consequences and I will do everything in my ability to avoid the wrong decision being made.”

ACTU president Michele O’Neil, who will meet One Nation representatives in Canberra on Monday, said the amendments would not limit the “extraordinarily wide range of grounds” on which a union could be deregistered or an official disqualified.

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick said he would support the bill after securing changes a “reasonable person would say (had made it) pretty near impossible to be done over for a paperwork misdemeanour”.

He said he would read out to the Senate the frustrated comments of Federal Court judges when they made adverse rulings against the construction union.

“You cannot have a situation where people are repeatedly breaking the law and the courts are unable to deal with it,” he told The Australian.

“That is not permissible in a country that respects the rule of law. I am a friend of the unions but you have a movement who are of the view no bill is necessary, that no matter what we did to that bill, it would not be satisfactory.”

Senator Patrick said he had spoken to 20 unions over recent months and held long late-night meetings with the ACTU to discuss the bill. “I did that because I do care about unions, I do care about the work they do,’’ he said. “I’m not a member of a union and have not been …. (but) they are very, very useful organisations, they do protect workers, they help get pay rises, they help get proper conditions for workers, they do help deal with safety. They are important but not above the law.”

He said union advertisements urging people to ring the offices of the crossbenchers to oppose the bill had not helped the union movement’s cause.

“Some of them didn’t even know what the bill was they were ringing up to tell us not to vote for,” Senator Patrick said.

Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said the amendments made “sensible changes” to the bill, including a demerit points system that would “effectively” give officials “three strikes” before they could be referred to the courts for disqualification. He said the bill made it clear the courts must take into account the gravity of conduct when considering disqualification or deregistration.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said on Sunday the government amendments were a sick joke: “Unions can still be shut down for paperwork breaches but Porter says we should be happy because unions can spend members’ money fighting it in the courts.”