The Liberals love their scare campaign slogan ‘70 per cent of the Labor frontbench are ex-union officials’. So does this mean their own ministry is by contrast made up of a wildly diverse group of Australians? Well no actually – they’re 70 per cent ex-Liberal party officials and cashed up right wing lawyers. Many have spent their working lives sticking up for big business.
Let’s take a closer look:
John Howard: liberal party official and solicitor.
Peter Costello: barrister who’s most famous victory was a ground breaking union busting action called the ‘Dollar Sweet’s Case’.
Alexander Downer: adviser to Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Later Director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce an anti union Employer representative body.
Tony Abbott: adviser to the Leader of the Opposition John Hewson. Later Executive Director of conservative lobby group Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.
Julie Bishop: solicitor and managing partner of Clayton Utz a notoriously right wing law firm (the Prime Minister’s daughter works there).
Joe Hockey: Liberal student politician, advisor to a Liberal Premier. He was also a lawyer.
Christopher Pyne: advisor to Liberal Senator Amanda Vanstone and solicitor.
Andrew Robb: advisor to the National Farmers' Federation an anti union Employer representative body. Later he became Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition Andrew Peacock and later still was Federal Director of the Liberal Party.
Bruce Billson: adviser to Liberal State Minister and later an adviser to a Federal Liberal Minister.
Nick Minchin: Liberal party official and solicitor.
Philip Ruddock: solicitor.
Helen Coonan: barrister.
Dr Brendan Nelson: President of the Australian Medical Association - basicly the doctors union.
Kevin Andrews: barrister and associate of a conservative Supreme Court judge.
Chris Ellison: barrister.
Peter McGauran: barrister.
Malcolm Turnbull: barrister.
David Johnston: barrister.
George Brandis: barrister.
Eric Abetz: barrister.
So you do the maths. That’s 16 lawyers and 8 former Liberal Party advisors. The Liberals talk about how only 20% or 1.9 million members of the workforce are unionized – and therefore Labor’s union heavy front bench is unrepresentative. Well what percentage of Australians are ex Liberal Party officials or barristers? Less than 1.9 million, that’s for sure. So who’s the more unrepresentative?
And why isn’t the Labor Party spelling this out to us? Because I can guarantee John Howard isn’t going to stop going on about the unions.
