Read more at The Australian
Malcolm Turnbull to harness unity for reform agenda
PM to meet business, union leaders
The Prime Minister has invited business, union and community leaders for two hours of direct talks at Parliament House on Thursday.
Invitations have been extended to Business Council of Australia president Catherine Livingstone and BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott, Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Dave Oliver............
Mr Turnbull is expected to be accompanied by.... Treasurer Scott Morrison, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer and Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos.
....the Prime Minister said: “Australia is a prosperous country with high wages, a high standard of living and a generous social welfare safety net. To secure and enhance our prosperity we must be more productive, competitive and innovative.’’
Mr Turnbull said he was looking forward to meeting the summit’s leaders “to hear the shared reform priorities of business, unions and the wider community’’.
“Our government is focused on the opportunities arising from technological disruption and in creating an environment for strong, innovative industries to grow,’’ Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Oliver confirmed he had been invited by Mr Turnbull and would attend the meeting on Thursday “on that same basis that we participated in the National Reform Summit’’.
Unions wanted to engage in a high-level dialogue “about the high road’’, but were not interested in discussing cutting penalty rates or minium rates of pay. They wanted to discuss the economy, the changing nature of work, the impact of technology and have a constructive dialogue with the government.
In December last year TURC Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon AC QC handed his interim report to the Australian Government. He said outlaw union bosses posed a "grave threat to the power and authority of the Australian state".
Now we know much more about that threat and what it will do to Australia if we don't fight back. Those technological innovations so lauded by our new PM mean it's not just an empty hearing room that's resonated the voices of people, witnesses to what rogue union bosses have been up to. Nor is it just Commissioner Heydon who is privy to the truth. Hundreds of thousands of us have watched and listened live and daily for nearly 2 years and we remember what we saw.
World-class investigators told us about their technological disruptions to union-related crime. The hitherto secret plans of outlaws hatched in email, coded texts, intercepted mobile phone calls, even muffled conversations in a Qantas Club have been faithfully captured and delivered with forensic continuity to Commissioner Heydon's hearing room - and to our homes.
So it's not just the Commissioner, it's the people who have seen the live and chilling exposition of crime, hitmen, murder, gangsters, bribes - and a system of patronage involving rogue union bosses that has blatant disregard for the law or the orders of our courts.
Until the ACTU admits our unions have a major, systemic problem at the top with criminals and corruption thriving in their senior ranks, it - the ACTU - is a part of the problem. It should be isolated until all traces of its insidious infection have been identified, excised and rendered inert.
The corruption-hosting ACTU is in denial. It's a long way from admitting to the problem let alone helping to heal itself. The words "grave threat" to Australia's authority, laws and justice system apparently mean nothing to the ACTU. Or perhaps it's just that Australia mean less to the ACTU than the interests of outlaw union bosses.
Rather than reacting like a patient told he has a treatable life-threatening cancer within, the ACTU's David Oliver is trying to discredit and destroy the physician whose team of forensic pathologists is inching towards the ACTU's cure.
Malcolm Turnbull says he won't wage war with the unions. If he won't fight back, the rogues within the protective ACTU body are safe - because it refuses to seek help. Mr Turnbull sounds like a policeman who won't take on armed robbers because it might cause trouble. Or perhaps, like Dave Oliver Malcolm too pretends not to see the problem.
The strong industries Mr Turnbull wants Australia to grow won't flourish if the first shoots are attacked by racketeers and corrupt cartel operators putting the bite on the best bits.
Commissioner Heydon's warning about the "Grave Theat to the Power and Authority of the Australian State" shouldn't need amplification. Police commissioners don't invite organised crime figures to police strategic planning conferences. Nor should the Australian Government invite the unreconstructed ACTU to help plan our future, at the least until the ACTU gets serious about its own rehabilitation.
On 20 August, 2015, less than one month ago, union bosses showed their hand with their strategy to counter the Abbott Government and its vigorous pursuit of outlaw union chiefs.
Looks like its pay-back time.
