Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a former official of the Australian Workers Union, I represented, amongst others, miners in the metalliferous mining industry. Not only did I represent those miners in the courts but I also attended mine sites and accompanied miners underground. The mining industry has not always been as buoyant as it is today, propped up by high commodity prices. I remember when ore prices plummeted some years ago and a number of mines, particularly smaller ones, started to seriously consider closing. Mine managements were under intense pressure to look for cost cutting. As is evident from the recent events at Beaconsfield, mines are often an important economic asset in small towns. While workers were willing to consider compromising on some things in order to keep the mine open and keep their jobs, there was one thing on which miners were never willing to compromise, and that was safety in the workplace. If there is anything that we should take from Beaconsfield it is that we can never do enough to make sure that mines—or any other workplaces for that matter—are safe for people to work in.

Over the years it was the union movement that brought safety to the attention of mine owners and business operators more generally. Unions campaigned for improved health and safety in the mining industry, often opposed in boardrooms and corporate offices on the basis of cost. Todd Russell himself indicated recently in that interview that it was through his training that he knew and understood the scope of the rescue operation that was taking place.

It is against this backdrop, one which has shown the dangers faced when people go off to work each day, that this government has actively sought to undermine the hard-won advances in safety for working Australians. The Howard government has specifically banned union provided occupational health and safety training from industrial agreements. Over the last couple of days we have heard repeated yet pathetic attempts by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Acting Prime Minister to deny this, but you only need to take a look at their own industrial relations regulations to find out the facts. Section 8.5 of the Workplace Relations Regulations lists the prohibited content for both individual and collective industrial agreements. It states:

A term of a workplace agreement is prohibited content to the extent that it deals with the following:

…     …         …

(c) employees bound by the agreement receiving leave to attend training (however described) provided by a trade union.

That is not the end of the story. Section 365 of the act provides for fines of up to $33,000 for a body simply seeking to include any prohibited content in an agreement. That is a fantastic way to emphasise the point. If you are still not convinced, you need only look at the conclusion of the Office of the Employment Advocate, the government’s own adviser on such matters, on 19 April this year, when it said in relation to mining matter before it:

Bona fide union business can include leave to attend training ... As such I have concluded that it falls within the terms of Regulation 8.5(1)(c)—

that is, prohibited content. During the term of this parliament the government has progressively sought to undermine the role of trade unions in OH&S in the passage of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (Repeal, Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2005, the Occupational Health and Safety (Commonwealth Employment) Amendment Bill 2005 and the Occupational Health and Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment Bill 2005. Each of these bills acted to compromise safety regulations and put people at risk.

As a parent of a son who works in a mine, I believe it is simply not acceptable for the government and industry to benefit from the mining boom while making it easier for companies to cut corners on safety by trying to sideline legitimate union run health and safety training. This government is trying to drive a stake through the heart of occupational health and safety. It is only too willing to put the safety of working Australians at risk as it pursues its ideological campaign to destroy the union movement. This will not be tolerated.

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