It has become increasingly clear that the prime reason that the unions exist is to extort money from employers and fund labor and the greens who in turn shield them from scrutiny, give them police level powers of access, and near total immunity.

To quote Grace Collier:

"Way back, when Shorten ran the AWU, within other unions, resentment and suspicion towards the union was widespread. Through the years, other union officials, struggling with dwindling memberships and declining finances, developed a theory to explain how the clapped-out AWU inexplicably had been revived. This theory had its foundation in widespread anecdotal evidence.

Every union official I have ever met has their own AWU story to tell, and these stories always follow the same theme. The interests of working people are traded away in exchange for money from a grateful employer. The union official visits a work site to find all their members have been “put into the AWU” and they are consequently shut out of the workplace.

Now, the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption has provided much evidence to back up those stories. Because of these stories, the AWU, among the other unions, has long been considered not a proper union.

It is considered a business, and if it is a business, its product is said to be cheap, compliant labour. Imagine having the opportunity to run a union, with all its legal privileges and its tax-exempt status, as a business that is able to charge for a cut-rate, acquiescent workforce and the legislative ability to lock other unions out of the workplace."

Nice try shallow minister but we all know it is the 1% and the big corporations who are shafting the rest of us and destroying our economy. Sending all our jobs overseas. Manipulating us with their propaganda and their mates in the media.
Tax evasion, tax havens, Swiss bank accounts, massive government welfare all while attacking the poorest and most vulnerable. What heros.

There are hardly any union members left and we are paying the price with no wage growth, overwork and underemployment are both rife, 7/11 and all the others who import virtual slave labor instead of employing Aussies. The destruction of all our industry. And still the right wing tory pigs continue their biased attacks on working people and their conditions. Witness their gleeful charge to reduce peoples penalty rates. The push to up the GST.

It is not unions or refugees or black people or dole bludgers or pensioners or students or sick people or the elderly that are the problem.
It is greedy, selfish, cowardly, rightards who are destroying this world and its civilisation with their lies and their power and their money and their idiotic infatuation with capitalism, and endless growth.

Lets attack workers, that is what it’s all about. So where is the difference, there isn’t any. The core objective of the far right conservatives faction. The gap has further widened, and the fat cats are fatter than ever.

K Jackson was all good while she was spilling beans all over the place, I would put her in the same class as that other chaff eating female. The era of Abbott-mania, gord help us.

Government allowed corruption 457 visa’s mushroom farms, cleaners, 7/11, Free trade agreements open to interpretation. Submarines for a signature. The ride has been wild.

Shadow obviously missed the conga line of "on the take Liberals" in NSW who have been exposed by the ICAC for taking corrupt payments from business. At last count there were about a dozen or more, one of the first to go was the primer himself Boozy Fatty O'Barrel. This fact is something Shadow has ignored constantly on the forum.

Malcolm wants you all to invest in AUSTRALIA! Building a better nation, investment is the key. Unfortunately in his own case, his invested millions are earning him a better return in the CAYMAN ISLANDS!

Malcolm's Cayman Islands business, and if it is a business, its product is said to be cheap, compliant labour. Imagine having the opportunity to run a Malcolm Cayman Island business, with all its legal privileges and its tax-exempt status, as a business that is able to charge for a cut-rate, acquiescent workforce and the legislative ability to lock other Australians out of the workplace."

Shadow sees unions as "the cancer eating at the Australian economy" claiming that "Every union official I have ever met has their own AWU story to tell" Shadow do these "union official's" you meet, and I can only assume it it not on a rep to member basis that you meet, as I also assume you have never been a union member in your life. Do they simply run to you to blurt out their sorry tail of woe, or do they see you as a sympathetic shoulder to cry on, supplied by the boss.

From the SMH; "The priority for Parliament should remain pinging the big tax culprits – foreign-controlled multinationals."

http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/malcolm-turnbulls-cayman-islands-connection-isnt-the-problem-20151015-gk9teq.html

Paul,

I'm trying to work out whether the idiocy displayed in you post is feigned or real.

Q1 Was the claim to have met union officials mine or some one else's
Hint: the section was bracketed by quotation marks and preceded by "To quote Grace Collier:"

No I have never been nor ever will pay dues to the parasites called unions, and while you desperately try and divert the topic to international businesses I would prefer you focus on the criminals representing less than 1/5th of workers.

Shadow, who is this nondescript Grace Collier chick you make reference too? Other than being some kind of right wing totey, or is that tottie, I'm not sure which. Her only claim to fame is some disparaging remarks about Julia Gillard's cleavage, boring! If you are going to make reference to nobody's, please explain who these nobody's are, and that these nobody's are not you!

Fascinating ! So the unions have their useful idiots as well, Paul, Doog, mikk ?

I first joined a union in 1962, and was in one or another for about twelve years. All utterly useless: when I worked at Arnott's, the union bloke had (I think) TB but was allowed to continue working, he was always in the manager's office, just chatting. At another bakery in Melbourne, the union bloke was solidly behind the push to raise weight limits. Little turd. We nearly put him through the oven.

At a meatworks where I worked later, the union was pretty quiet until the Rugby was on - then we got health inspections.

Later, I worked at another bakery where the management tried to super-exploit the women, but once a complaint went to the union bloke at Trade Hall, a great bloke appropriately named Fry, the management had to back down and reimburse the women. The men did nothing either way, at the outset, or at the conclusion. So much for workers' solidarity.

Later, when I worked at a university, I found the union also utterly useless, in the pocket of one particular faction. They did absolutely nothing for me, and many years later they did nothing for my wife either. The NTEU. Total b@stards.

So ask me if I were still of employable age, would I like to join a union :)

Joe
www.firstsources.info

Joe,

"They (The Union) did absolutely nothing for me" thanks for your little bit of anecdotal nonsense. My 40 years experience of unions and being involved with the AMWSU for many years is just the opposite to yours. At the baking place where you most likely satback and did nothing as it sounds, were you still working for four pence a day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year, in your loincloth, begging bowl in hand? Or were you enjoying the multitude of benefits others workers had fought for and gained for you through unionism and worker solidarity.
In my years of experience most of the objections to the union were not philosophical but came down to blokes not wanting to part with the dues, there was the occasional right wing nutter who objected, but they mostly came from Eastern Europe and were still fighting comrade Stalin and WWII.

I recall one bloke who was vehemently anti union, until he relised he had been paid under the wrong classification and therefore was owed a substantial amount of back pay, quickly turned from a bosses lackey to a raving red, strange how self interest works, got his back pay, and of course went from a raving red to a bosses lackey. Thought I would throw that little bit of anecdotal nonsense in for you Joe, like yours its neither here nor there.

Fascinating ! So the bosses have their useful idiots as well, Loudmouth, Shadow Minister?

Hi Paul,

Coming from a strong Union family, all I wanted was a union whose on-site reps were not bosses' lackeys. I'm sure many people have had the same experience.

My grandfather was involved - on the workers' side - in the 1890s shearers' strike in Queensland. My mum was an organiser for the railways' union before and during the War. She knew people like Lance Sharkey and Jim Healy well. Make what you will of that.

But those were the days .....

Joe

Hi SM,

I'm a bit pressed for time this morning, but I just had to enquire as to whether you saw your hero Michael Lawler on Four Corners last night?

Do you reckon his delusion and paranoia was feigned or real?

Kathy just seemed to be there effect, but it was Lawler who came across as, shall we say, a little "off centre".

(since there is a union connection with these two, I don't suppose you mind me putting this here?)

Unions are passe. Fewer workers are joining unions, which, to my mind says everything about their usefulness. I was a member of several different unions when I was working: why? Well, everyone joined 'the union' those days. I honestly can't think of another reason.

There was a time in our history when the labour movement, the Labor Party, and the unions were the best thing that happened. They improved the lot of workers out of all imagining. Now, as with much of the rest society, they have succumbed to the greed and corruption of a thuggish minority of union bosses. There is only one way to get rid of them: do not join. Have faith in the law, the decency of your fellow man, and public opinion.

Poirot mentioned 4 Corners. What an unlikeable, self-interested, selfish and 'evil' couple; what a pair of show ponies, especially him, with his Harrison Ford attempt. A shocking revelation of people inhabiting the halls of power.

LOL Poirot

Those two are the biggest space cadets I have ever seen on television.
Im pretty sure the whole show was a plot to convince the public they really are insane. Their mate with dementia seemed the only competent one there.

Im sure shallow will be along soon to defend them and throw in a bit of vilification of C Thompson and the unions. Talk about predictable. And boring.

"Karel Solomon, a Greens member who contested the 2012 Marrickville local council election, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in an undercover police operation. Police allege Solomon, 61, made sexually explicit comments to a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl online during the operation last month. He then planned to meet the girl at a Parramatta restaurant but was instead confronted by detectives. (Daily Telegraph)"

Paul,

It is no secret that the greens dance to the CFMEU's tune and are deeply and systemically corrupt, receiving nearly $1m from them just last year from money gained from selling out workers.

Feel free to name a liberal MP that has been convicted, or even arrested for corruption.

There are dozens of Labor and Unions officials

Shadow do you recommend this Karel Solomon fella avails himself of the Alan Jones London defense of police entrapment? You know Jones that loud mouthed anti union shock jock. failed Liberal Party candidate and current party member, the one you admire so much. Unlike Jones, Solomon was not a Greens member at the time of the alleged offence.

A bit on Jones and his days as a master at the all boys kings School.

http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2015/05/21/2gbs-alan-jones-sent-love-letters-to-a-school-boy-why-has-he-never-been-charged-with-grooming/

Parrot,

I also saw your hero Kathy Jackson, (or is it Craig Thomson or Obeid?)

As for the request to comment on your opinion that Lawler was "off center": I can only guess that as your comment is so vague as to be meaningless that you have no clue either.

Paul,

I guess that was your admission that the idiocy was not feigned. I guess the word quotation is too big for you to understand, and that you shy away from well read and educated columnists and defer to the nobodies in blogs that most people haven't even heard of.

Paul,

You seem a little conflicted, first you leap to the defense of your fellow green Karel Solomon, then you try to claim that he wasn't a green, even though he represented you at the Marrickville elections, and there is no evidence that he quit.

I was also unaware that Jones was a member of the greens, but if you say so!

Hi Paul,

A bit off-topic [i.e., union corruption], but when you mention Jones, you may need to be careful not to upset the homosexual and homosexual marriage lobbies, as well as the Greens.

BTT: I couldn't bear to watch either 4 Corners or Q&A last night, but from what I've read of Lawler and Jackson (and Thomson and Obeid etc., etc.), I would strongly advise anybody who would care to listen, to learn as much as they can about a union before they join it. And if such knowledge was difficult to find out, give it a miss.

Of course, unions play vital roles in our economy, BUT only if they are not corrupt (if they have mechanisms for detecting and expelling crooks) and if they genuinely serve the members, i.e. bust their arses for members, and are not just a bunch of time-servers.

As well, anybody working should check out whether or not they are already signed up into a union without knowing it, a la Shorten.

I must say I can't wait for the next instalment of the Royal Commission ....

Joe

Capitalism is about capital (maintaining the value of money). Competition is about playing companies against each other to lower labour and produced products prices. I don’t see money increasing value while historically… manufactured products (being mostly imported) seem to maintain similar value over recent years. Wage inflation is about 4% annually.

If you’re buying a house, wage inflation increases costs of new buildings. Old buildings depreciate. Wage inflation aids maintaining property price valuations. Without year to year reliable wage inflation, fewer wage earners would consider investing in property, fewer buildings would be built, assuming wage earners renting, assuming more marriages braking up.

Increased wages give new property buyers, earning increasing wages, the confidence and incentive to purchase property. These periodic 2 year buying periods, based on low interest rates, induce people into buying property.

If by not being a property investor, share certificate dividends are an alternative to low bank interest savings.
This version of capitalism is based on saving money at the expense of money losing value; risky investment bankruptcies and or merely saving money, never bothering to spend savings wealth economy.

GDP reflects new employment ratio to new employment seekers, unemployment miner up down percentages.

Does not anyone realise capitalism is too good to be true? Does everyone still believe in real magic not being faked Magic tricks?

Because most workers are saving money, rather than spending money, financial institutions, transport fuel costs, (not buying Australian services and manufactures products) I believe, share traded company profits are not providing profits to the majority of Australian share traded business, who mostly provide employment and annual wage increases to pay out property loans.

Capitalism may work in counties where a very rich class society provides wages for a working class poor. In the end, when that unsubsidised capitalism fails to work, a French Revolution example results.

Unions are part of the propaganda, fake scandals exposures, anecdotal democracy transparency.

Shadow minister you are preaching to many who have enjoyed their lives provided through someones risk.

There are sectors where PR should stay, but then there are sectors like hospitallity, tourism and retail where by consumer habits have changed demands and seen a huge increase in weekend trade, esspecially Sundays.

The simple truth is that many prices have reached their limit and if ere is no winding back of rates for these days, JOBS WILL GO.

Perhaps a better option would be to bring back the pre extended trading hours, hours, shut at noon Satuurday, unlawful to open Sundays public holidays.

It stands to reason that if you extend trading hours, then wages rates must also be altered, but try telling any union/unionist that.

Another problem is that like work choices, many who are against the removal of penalty rates are nit actually effected personally.

We now have a situation where staff get paid more on weekends while employers get paid less and that's an unhealthy balance especially given many employers hands are tied with the likes of UFD laws. Is it little wonder people suffer from casualization and underemployment.

Sadly, many will learn the hard way but at least we will be able to say, WE TOLD YOU SO.

Shadow wrong again, Jones is a Liberal Party member, and one of great influence no less, Jones was at the time of being charged with a serious sex offence in London a Liberal Party member. Unlike Solomon where the record shows that he was un-financial, and thus not a Greens member at the time of the alleged offence, and I have that on good authority, as their is no evidence to the contrary, he may have gone off and joined the Liberal Party. Shadow, again quoting from one of Uncle Rupts fish wrappers 'The Daily Telecrap' a very unreliable source of information if ever there was one.

Being big in the Liberal Party do you ever get down with Jones and chew the fat so to speak?

Joe, we Greens do agree with Jones on one subject, his opposition to Coal Seam Gas in NSW, something that for some unexplained reason the Liberal government is all in favour of, could it have something to do with the big "donations" the party receives from this noxious business? Possibly Shadow can enlighten us on that subject

Paul,

Wow, You really couldn't see it, are you really that illiterate? to quote you:

"Unlike Jones, Solomon was not a Greens member at the time"

But Solomon was a greens member when he started to groom children. The greens have no records to the contrary. To refresh your memory.

"A FORMER Greens candidate has been charged with grooming a child for sex and having child pornography material after police carried out an online sting.

Karel Solomon, a Greens member who contested the 2012 Marrickville local council election, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon in an undercover police operation.

Police allege Solomon, 61, made sexually explicit comments to a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl online during the operation last month.

He then planned to meet the girl at a Parramatta restaurant but was instead confronted by detectives.

Karel was once a member of the Greens Petersham/Newtown Branch and was part of the “Green Team” in the 2012 Marrickville election."

How unfortunate Shadow that you have fallen for one of uncle Rupts concoctions. it would seem from reliable sources that this "story" about the mystery Karel Solomon only appeared in one publication, your uncle Rupts gutter rag 'The Daily Telecrap', how unreliable is that! It may well have been the result of a late night drinking session between your two bosom buddies, the brutish Pier Akerman, and the voluptuous Miranda Devine. It is believed by some that following this heavy drinking session a late night phone call was had from Uncle Rups in his New York HQ, demanding "get some dirt on the Greens, they are too popular with the people!". Like the sycophantic servants they are Akerman and Devine complied with much exaggerated exuberance.

While we are on the subject, can you enlighten me as to who is the former unnamed prime minister Liberal senate grub Hefferman was referring too as being on a list of pedophiles? The cowardly Hefferman seen fit to use parliamentary privileged to slander every PM from Barton to Abbott, note it can not be Turnbull as he is not yet a former PM. Come on you should know!

Were you a student at Kings School in the 1970's under Master Jones? I think you were.

Back on the subject, When is rabbit Abbott going to pay for that national treasure (ie one marble coffee table of huge national and cultural significance to the Aussie people) he and/or cronies smashed up in a drunken rage the night Abbott was ass holed?

So Paul,

While I can see that you are still trying to divert attention from the union and Green's corruption and other criminal acts it is not working.

If I have to choose between whether the DT with it's fact checkers and the police are lying, or you are. It's not a hard decision. If the DT's info was correct, the green harpies would be shrieking the sky down. That they are so quiet, is because one of the green's leaders has been caught grooming children.

As for for AJ, The story came out in 2006 in the SMH rag and in the last 10 years, there has been nothing, whereas Karel Solomon of the greens has been arrested and will be facing court.

I suspect your hatred of Catholics is due to going to a Catholic school where the priests were hard on you.

A see one of the greens paymasters in the CFMEU is being charged.

Shadow, the fact that someone who once stood for the Greens in a local election has since been charged with a totally unrelated crime is not evidence of corruption.

SM,

"Parrot,

I also saw your hero Kathy Jackson, (or is it Craig Thomson or Obeid?)"

Lol!....it was you who was doing the Can Can up and down the threads of OLO when Kathy was doing her number on Thomson.

"As for the request to comment on your opinion that Lawler was "off center": I can only guess that as your comment is so vague as to be meaningless that you have no clue either."

Oh sorry, 'bout that...when I said "off centre", I meant truly deluded and whacko.

Clearer now?

The exchanges between Shadow M and Paul are getting increasingly acrimonious, unpleasant and unwanted. Hard to work out who is at fault. I haven't suspended any body, but I will suspend which ever one of them continues with this nonsense, if either of them does.

Administrator

Mr.
Administrator

Whatever happened to freedom of speech and expression opinion?
Working for the cyber security services must be trying.

The original topic was union corruption.

Heavily unionized businesses are now facing stiff competition are collapsing as the government can no longer subsidize them, and the construction industry is the most expensive in the world, making Aus unattractive to foreign investors.

This is not just simply from expensive and inflexible labour, but the extortion, protection rackets, and bribery that fills the union coffers with $millions that is illegal in most countries.

It is long past due to make direct payments to unions by employers illegal, and to make the union finances as transparent as is required for companies.

Shadow, your concern for the profits of the billionaire developers like James Packer at Barangaroo in Sydney is touching. Can you support your claim that "the construction industry (in Australia) is the most expensive in the world, making Aus unattractive to foreign investors." Anyone living in Sydney would find it hard to believe that statement, given the huge amount of development taking place.
Liberal Party corruption where developers were, and possibly still are, making illegal payments to party members has been well and truly exposed by the NSW ICAC.
The building industry is a dangerous business (for the workers), with Safe Work Australia reporting an unacceptable 16 deaths alone in the construction industry so far this year, with 23 deaths reported last year. Well over 150 Australians die annually through work related accidents. This is fact and not some vague claim related to profits. To make construction "more attractive" to foreign investors how many deaths are you willing to accept in the industry, because if we are going to compete with third world countries, we are going to have to lower our industry standards to their level.
It is through the work of unions like the CFMEU that worker safety gets any serious attention on the job site, time and time again the union goes into non union sites, only to find dodgy work practices which can and do result in deaths.
Shadow, you call for transparency, and I agree, but it is a two way street, and illegal payments of all kinds, including illegal payments to the Liberal Party in NSW by developers also have to be stamped out. Otherwise shonky practices will continue being fed by the bosses, all to improve their bottom line.

Paul,

I find your desire to protect the right of union heavies to have their houses built for free touching. The cost of construction in Aus has been the highest in the world for a while now. Do you ever read the papers.

Please tell me how stopping the union corruption and selling of wages to employers will affect safety? stopping corruption does not reduce safety, but with union reps actually doing their work instead of acting as collectors, it might actually improve.

And the deep corruption of the Greens has been exposed by the police (Karel Solomon) and the dirty money paid by companies and unions.

Shadow, I deplore corruption in all its forms, and it is somewhat systemic in Australian society, every where from all levels of government, to your local club official, right through to your bent cooper etc, I do not believe the union movement, and business, are exempt from the influence of the corrupt.

What motivates you in this discussion is your hatred of unions and no sense of what is right and fair for the working men and women of Australia. On balance I believe unions have been a positive for the workers of Australia.

Again I ask you to provide evidence that building costs in Australia are the highest in the world. I will not accept a beat up from one your much loved Murdoch fish wrappers as proof.As I posted earlier the amount of development going ahead in Sydney give the lie to your claim.

"BILLIONAIRE James Packer unveiled his vision for Sydney last night, giving a $2 billion promise to repay the city’s faith with a spectacular and iconic building that will carry the city into the future.

“The government and the parliament have put their faith in us and we will deliver them something truly spectacular,” Mr Packer said. “There has never been a hotel that cost $5 million a room in the history of the world.” That development is in SYDNEY AUSTRALIA.

Paul,

Here is a comparison of construction costs world wide. The only country that comes close is Canada. Aus is far more expensive than the USA, Germany, UK, Japan, etc.

Even blind Freddy can see two things:
1 There is rampant corruption in many of the unions, particularly the CFMEU and AWU, where extortion is common place, and sweet heart deals are made to reduce workers pay in exchange for payments to the unions.
2 The reporting requirements of the unions are so lax that most of this corruption is undetectable without a RC.

So Paul, tell me which anti corruption measures you object to and why:
1 Banning payments to unions from companies
2 Requiring unions to submit audited reports (like every other organisation)
3 Put in place a commission to deal swiftly with illegal activities by the unions that directly harm others.

Your snippet that shows Packer's hotel costs more per room than any other hotel in the world shows up your lie that building costs are not the most expensive in the world.

The development is Sydney is driven by high housing prices and low interest.

Well Shadow I like this one;

"Here is a comparison of construction costs world wide. The only country that comes close is Canada. Aus is far more expensive than the USA, Germany, UK, Japan, etc."

Where is this comparison, for all I know, this could be a figment of your imagination. I see no comparison!

As for Packer, his hotel could have 24 carat gold door knobs, the cost is meaningless as a guide to building costs world wide. It does show the confidence the man has in Australia as a place to build with the involvement of members of the CFMEU, and invest to make a profit. I would assume much of that investment money was raised o/s, nothing to do with the local housing market.

I have no problem with employer payments to unions to provide legitimate worker benefits such as 'health and safety' training, particularly where the employer is not in a position to provide such. I have no problem with your point #2, seems fair and reasonable. Point #3 should also include employers, but this needs explaining, is it on top of the Fair Work Commission? What body, what powers?

What I do object to, is a philosophical driven attempt to discredit Labor, particularly Shorten, and the unions by the use of the powers of an $80 million royal commission, with the perceived bias of the commissioner himself. I do not have time for Shorten and the AWU, not when he was a union official or as a Labor leader.

You previously posted that I hate the Catholic Church, assume I do, but I don't hate anyone including Catholics, is your anti union bias based on an unhappy experience, or is it like Abbott's was, all philosophical?

Paul,

Missed the attachment:

http://www.rics.org/sg/knowledge/glossary/building-costs-around-the-world/

Not easy to read, but the best there is.

You brought up Packer not me.

As for my proposals, 1) the corrupt payments to the unions were always entitled "training" or something but with no training delivered, This is a loophole through which all shonky payments flow.

3) I am quite happy to include and prosecute employers for shonky behaviour and payments too.

Shadow, had a look at your link, no value at all take this from 'Statistics Australia' not an org known to me, please note the date 2007

STATISTICS AUSTRIA, Last Changed 22.10.2007

"As for my (Shadow) proposals, 1) the corrupt payments to the unions were always entitled "training" or something but with no training delivered, This is a loophole through which all shonky payments flow."

I am in agreement there, shonky indeed. and that should be corrected where it can be proven.

I am also not going to degenerate the whole union movement based on the actions of a few grubs, people like Thompson, Williams, Jackson, Maitland and if proven add a few others including Shorten and co.
My partner "T" worked hard for the HSU as a delegate, and still does, although she resigned for a year in protest, they begged her to come back, that was the only time in my life that I have advised someone to resign from the union. I like her detests Thompson, Williams and Jackson, they are scum, they betrayed the trust given to them by low paid workers for their own benefit. Worse than anything any employer of the members ever done.
I recall Norm Gallagher of the BLF, people describe Norm as a communists, no Norm was an out and out crook. Sure he got things for his members, but he also got plenty for Norm.

I do still enjoy having a weekend though. And 4 weeks annual leave. And a 40 hour week in theory.

Houellebecq,

Your union hasn't traded any of those conditions in exchange for a few hundred thousand into the union's coffers and for a favourite from the union office to be slipped into a senior position in your organisation?

I don't have a problem with those who argue that unions can have a role to play.

However the question is whether unions should abide by the rules that apply to other organisations -to 'keep the bastards honest'.

No-one has shown how the subs and interests of union 'rank and file' members might be protected otherwise.

Try this one

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB0QFjAAahUKEwizto3u_97IAhXLmZQKHUEoAHw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.turnerandtownsend.com%2Fconstruction-cost-2012%2FTT_ICC_Report_Single_Pages_j98uI.pdf.file&usg=AFQjCNEQBd5kxtIFNfDG4D7nwcEYl1H6Vw&sig2=tX7iL4OH5xf91oRGzhOmxg

If developers are banned from donating to pollies to reduce the risk of corruption, the large number of corrupt payments tagged as "training" should be a red flag, especially as it is untraceable without a thorough audit. While an outright ban may not be practical, what exists now cannot remain.

The unions have a role to play, just that most of what they are doing has nothing to do with it.

Or this one:

"Employment Minister Michaelia Cash seized on figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing union membership had plummeted from 17 per cent in August 2013 to 15 per cent by August last year."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/industrial-relations/pressure-on-alp-as-unions-deserted/story-fn59noo3-1227584609268

It looks like workers are voting with their feet and abandoning the crooked unions and the parties beholden to them.