Combet proud of his union history

The latest Liberal Party attacks on Labor's "trade unionists" had been scorching across Australia's radio airwaves for nearly two hours yesterday morning before Greg Combet got his chance to reply.

"Peter Costello was particularly nasty yesterday about union people, including me. They are attacking us just because we've been associated with unions, but I've spent the best part of 25 years trying to help people and I don't see why that is so bad frankly," he said.

"I'm proud of what I've done in my working life and I can point to demonstrable things that I am pleased to have been able to achieve," he said, before running through the highlights of his career: the Waterfront dispute, the Ansett Airlines collapse and the James Hardie asbestos disease compensation case.

Mr Combet says the Howard Government's heightened focus on Labor's union links is reminiscent of the Menzies era, and indicative of a desperate Government.

As a man who has helped manage $26 billion worth of workers' superannuation funds and been the director of Member's Equity bank, Mr Combet is bemused by Liberal claims he is anti-business.

"I am not anti-business, I understand how important it is to have a good environment for investment because that's what generates jobs and helps lift living standards, and I'm very supportive of sensible business investment," he said.

"In all the work I've done in the past I've tried to stand up for people who don't have much of a voice and need the help the most, and that was certainly part of my motivation for coming here," he said. "There are things here to do, it needs health services, it needs investment in education, it needs big investment in infrastructure to help people and create jobs."

"Any self-respecting decent democracy around the world respects the right of individual employees to be a member of a union if they wish, and respects their right to join together as a group to cooperate and negotiate collectively," said Mr Combet.

When asked about Workplace Minister Joe Hockey's claim that the union movement was dead, Mr Combet labelled the suggestion "silly".

"Last I checked there was a living breathing heart in the unions, there's two million members and in fact the number of union members has grown over the past five years," he said.

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