Half federal Labor MPs have union origins

Penetration of the federal Labor Party by trade unions is holding back industrial relations reform, a right-wing think tank says.

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Penetration of the federal Labor Party by trade unions is holding back industrial relations reform, a right-wing think tank says.

Its analysis shows half the politicians in the federal opposition have held positions as union officials amid declining union membership.

More than half of the ALP frontbench comprises former union officials, according to research by Patrick Hannaford and James Paterson of the Institute of Public Affairs, who concluded there was “disproportionate” trade union representation in parliament, the ALP national executive and the Fair Work Commission.

Overall, 23 of 55 Labor MPs in the lower house and 17 of 25, or 68 per cent, ALP senators have a background as trade union officials, the research paper reports.

Of Labor’s caucus members, 13 are backed by the left-wing Australian Manufacturing Workers Union while the conservative Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association supports 12 caucus members and right-wing Australian Workers Union backs nine members.

In the paper Unions in Labor, A Handbrake on Reform, released ahead of this month’s ALP national conference, the authors state that “influence has significant impact on the policies passed by ALP governments”.

“The most obvious example of this is the area of industrial relations. Despite multiple periods of reform, the union movement has been able to ensure that it maintains a legally enshrined role in Australia’s industrial relations system,” the paper says. “The union movement also successfully demanded that the ALP abolish the construction industry watchdog, the Australian Building and Construction Commission.”

The commission was replaced by the Fair Work Building and Construction agency.

Members of the ALP are required to be members of a trade union and to employ union labour where possible. Yet union membership has fallen from 41 per cent of the workforce in 1990 to 17 per cent in 2013.

“The right to join a union is a fundamental principle for any free and democratic country,” the paper says. “But it is unhealthy for an interest group representing 8 per cent of the Australian population to have such an unprecedented level of influence over Australian politics.”

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said yesterday the ALP “was formed by working people, for working people, still cares for and represents working people”.