Why bother with facts when slander will do

Sue Bolton

Federal Coalition MP Wilson "Iron Bar" Tuckey was at it again last week. He already has a reputation for racist comments about Aborigines; now he's slandering trade unionists as well — all from the safety of parliament house privilege.

On August 17, in the House of Representatives, Tuckey referred to Victorian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary Martin "Kingham — or whoever they eventually put in jail — who went and belted up women in a workplace".

When Labor MP Craig Emerson interjected that Kingham had never been guilty of such a crime, an unrepentant Tuckey continued in the same slanderous vein: "When it comes to industrial health and safety, if you are a woman sitting at a computer and a bloke comes and picks it up in front of you and smashes it at your feet, that is not exactly the sort of contribution to industrial health and safety I would support ..."

Emerson interjected again, saying that Tuckey's comments were "completely false, erroneous and malicious". The speaker then ruled that the fact that comments made in parliament were erroneous was not sufficient grounds to force a parliamentarian to withdraw them.

With the Building Industry Improvement Bill expected to be passed by the Senate during the current sitting, we can expect more lies to be spouted by parliamentarians attempting to tarnish the image of building workers and unions. They need to justify the creation, under the new legislation, of a special police force that will be stationed on building sites.

Anyone accused of a crime, even a serious crime like murder, has the right to silence, yet building workers will not have that right when questioned by these special police. So much for democracy.

From Green Left Weekly, August 24, 2005.

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From GLW issue 639