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

I thank the member for Hasluck for his question and acknowledge his expertise in relation to the building and construction industry, particularly in his home state of Western Australia. The government has made significant progress in bringing about much-needed reform in the $50 billion building and construction industry in Australia. The Cole royal commission presented compelling evidence of an industry replete with unlawful activity, and corruption in some cases, resulting in extensive inefficiencies and increased building costs in the industry. Following the Cole royal commission, the government put in place a comprehensive reform package to address many of the problems identified by Mr Justice Cole in his report.

As the member for Hasluck intimated in his question, today the John Holland Group announced the settlement of a longstanding industrial dispute with the CFMEU. This dispute commenced before the government’s reforms were in place, and indeed the John Holland group said today that they ‘can’t see any need for us in our capacity as an employer to take that sort of action again, because there is now a comprehensive legislative regime in place that effectively prevents this sort of unlawful action’. As I said, there has been perhaps no other industry in Australia, such as the building and construction industry, that was in need of a comprehensive clean-up of activities which were taking place. The John Holland Group also reaffirmed its support for the government’s legislation, saying, ‘We welcome these new laws and are confident that they will assist in securing more productive workplaces.’

An important point about this is that the John Holland Group identified that, because of the reforms put in place, efficiencies are being generated in the order of 20 per cent on major building and construction projects in Australia. We know that industrial action in the past has cost up to $200,000 per day on major construction projects in Australia. Of course, that ultimately flows through to the consumers in Australia.

For another piece of data about the impact of these reforms put in place by the government one only has to look at the working days lost per 1,000 employees. In the March 2005 quarter, 43.5 working days were lost per 1,000 employees. In March 2006, which was the first period in which data has been recorded since the building and construction industry reforms were put in place, that figure of 43.5 working days lost per 1,000 employees had fallen to just 5.7 working days lost.

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