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

The more this government attempts to move legislation the more we see amendments before this place. Quite frankly, the government has become a serial offender in that we have regularly seen tax bills before this place, but it seems that this legislative sloppiness, if you like, has come down to industrial relations. We saw the mother of all amendments come into this place today which is likely to be debated sometime during the course of this week.

When you think about it, this takes away a lot of the need for the government to actually come up with ideas. The government is bereft of ideas when it comes to change. It is certainly bereft of ideas when it comes to having a decent legislative program. Quite frankly, the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (OHS) Bill 2007 is just another example of that. Quite frankly, amendments to their own legislation must be a welcome sight when they come to the cabinet table, because it means that ministers do not have to come up with new ideas; it means that ministers do not have to try and take money away from their taxpayer-funded re-election campaigns to invest in things such as infrastructure, health or the provision of further education and training. I digress.

In terms of the contribution we just heard from the member for Moreton, it would be remiss of me if I did not make some comment. I have to say that I and, I suppose, every other working Australian would take umbrage at the way they are demeaning the health and safety issues of workers on sites. I and every other worker in this country place a lot of truck on having safe workplaces. It has been simply trivialised. The member for Moreton is not the first to do that and will not be the last. I have to say, putting health and safety as low as that in this debate is a fair indication of the standing of a lot of members opposite.

This bill is not opposed by the Labor Party, but I would like to make certain comments in terms of commending Labor’s second reading amendment to the House. The bill before us amends a bill that was passed by the House in August 2005. Fewer than two years have passed since we debated amendments to the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005. I might add that this is not the first time that this bill has been amended. Prior to the original bill being put before this House, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations introduced about 30 pages of amendments to the original bill. He did not get it right then and it seems that he has not got it right now, as we are here debating further amendments today.

The purpose of this bill is to amend the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005, extending the application of the Australian government’s building and construction industry occupational health and safety accreditation scheme, administered by the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner, to cover the situation where building work is indirectly funded by the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth authority and to ensure that persons are accredited under the scheme at the time of entering into a contract for the building work funded by the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth authority, and that the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth—

Debate interrupted.

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