Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for La Trobe for his question. I note that the unemployment rate in his electorate of La Trobe is 3.7 per cent, due to the good economic management of this government. In response to his question, it is a fact that the members opposite and the union movement continue to persist with their misleading and ridiculous claims that people will not be able to receive the occupational health and safety training provided by unions. As I have pointed out in this place on a number of occasions, occupational health and safety remains a state and territory responsibility. It seems that the only person these days who does not believe that, and is incapable of understanding that, is the Leader of the Opposition. First, we had the email from the member for Lilley, acting on the advice of the member for Perth, which said that this training would continue to be provided. Then yesterday we had the collective agreement entered into by Bill Shorten’s union, the Australian Workers Union, which provided not only for occupational health and safety training but also that the workers would get paid leave to go and do that training.

I came across some more information about this matter overnight in a document called the SafetyNet Journal. The SafetyNet Journal features in it each week a frequently asked question. This week’s question is quite interesting. The question is:

Does the ‘WorkChoices’ legislation mean a rep—

a union rep—

cannot attend a union OHS rep’s course?

The answer is:

No, it does not.

It goes on to explain:

The changes to the Federal Workplace Relations Act (‘WorkChoices’) do NOT affect an OHS rep ... right to attend an initial/refresher course of their choice, including courses run by unions ...

This is very interesting advice because the SafetyNet Journal is published by the Victorian Trades Hall Council. If you go to the Victorian Trades Hall web site and look up this week’s question, you can get the answer to it. I note also that the journal says:

If you have any questions or need help—

the Leader of the Opposition might listen to this—

with any OHS related issue, Ask Renata.

I suggest he give Renata a ring before he makes foolish comments in future. This ridiculous situation, which the Leader of the Opposition maintains, just shows that he and some of the unions will stoop to any lengths in order to make a political point, including recently making a political stunt out of the death of a worker, something about which Neil Mitchell, in his column in the Herald Sun this morning, had this to say:

We were tricked. This case was orchestrated and promoted by the CFMEU to further its cause. The union used the body of a dead member to embarrass John Howard.

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