SYDNEY, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The new leader of Australia's union movement has defended comments advocating breaking the law.
Sally McManus, the new secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) based in Melbourne, came under fire when she said she had no problem with unions breaking "unjust" laws.
"I believe in the rule of law when the law is fair and the law is right," McManus told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in her first major interview since assuming the position.
"But when it's unjust I don't think there's a problem with breaking it."
McManus' comments provoked an outcry from politicians, with Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne saying there would be "chaos" if McManus got her way.
The ACTU boss clarified her comments but refused to back down on her belief that unions breaking the law can be justified, saying that the Australian union movement only won workplace rights by defying the law.
"Australia has been built by working people who have had the courage to stand up to unfair and unjust rules and demand something better," McManus told News Limited on Friday.
"Working people only take these measures when the issue is one of justice, like ensuring workers' safety on worksites, a fair day's pay for a fair day's work or to uphold and improve rights for working people."
McManus, a long-time political activist and first female leader of the ACTU, said that if she was forced to choose she would pick the union movement ahead of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), the major political party in Australia which has been strongest on workers' rights.
"I'm a unionist first, second and third. I'm a member of the Labor Party and I believe in the Labor Party but, if I had to choose, the movement comes first and our members come first," she said.
Bill Shorten, leader of the ALP and former secretary of the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), earlier in the week distanced himself from McManus, saying breaking the law was never justifiable.
"There are unfair laws in workplaces, I don't disagree with that summary, I don't support the cuts to penalty rates. But the way you best handle unfair laws is you change the law, and the best way to change an unfair law is to change the government," Shorten told the ABC.
