Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

yet Labor has placed this dark cloud over the Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner at the behest of its union bosses—and I take the interjection from the member for Stirling.

By watering down the compliance powers of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner and the national building code and then subsuming the body into some superbureaucracy, Fair Work Australia, Labor is opening the door wide and allowing the lawlessness, the corruption, to once again become the norm rather than the exception in the building and construction industry. If Labor were genuinely committed to ensuring the safety of workplaces, employees and employers, it would hold firm on the retention of the Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner and the national building code—the two elements that have provided some degree of protection and safety for participants in that industry from the thuggish bullying tactics engaged in by certain elements of the building and construction unions.

There is already reported and widespread misuse of safety powers on building sites, and now Labor is proposing a body that may well water down any capacity workplaces have to control or address the misuse of such powers by watering down the powers of the ABCC and establishing Safe Work Australia, a state controlled safety authority. You can just imagine the representatives that the state Labor governments around the country will put on this body.

In their quest to appease the union movement and abolish the Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner as it is currently constituted, members of the Labor government are disregarding the reason for the establishment of the Office of the ABCC and the introduction of the building code in the first place. This is reflected in the terms of reference of the Wilcox inquiry, where once again Labor appears to be rewriting history, pretending the Cole royal commission never, ever happened. There is no reference to the Cole royal commission or the reasons for the establishment of the Office of the ABCC in any aspect of the new terms of reference. In fact, the final terms of the inquiry contain no reference to considering the importance of retaining the independence of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner, nor the decline in industrial disputation in the construction sector since its establishment, nor the increase in productivity since the creation of the commissioner and the national building code.

Even worse, this month the head of the inquiry, Murray Wilcox QC, raised concerns about subcontractors being banned from tendering because they are non-compliant with code guidelines—non-compliant because they are, in many cases, breaking the law. Is the head of inquiry suggesting there is something wrong with employers being required to comply with the law? The purpose of the code and the building industry reforms in the first place was to prevent laws from being broken by union officials, contractors and employees. Why are we now hearing of concerns because the same parties are required to follow the law under the building reforms? Labor’s terms of reference for the Wilcox inquiry contain not one reference to how it will ensure the rule of law will be maintained and not overridden once more by industrial might. There is only one reason for this: Labor has no intention of maintaining the rule of law in the building and construction industry. For its payback to the union movement and its attempts to undermine the effective operation of workplaces in the building industry, the Labor government should be condemned.

The flawed policies all contributing to the demise of a once outstanding economic position keep on coming from Labor, with last week’s release of a draft exposure award from the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in response to a direct award modernisation request from the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Not only are there 1.88 million small businesses staring down the barrel of significant costs in the form of extended redundancy obligations but the retail and hospitality industries are predicting labour costs will increase by up to 20 per cent as a direct result of the employment minister’s award modernisation request. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission has been unable to comply with the employment minister’s pledge to not increase costs for employers and not disad-vantage employees. It was an impossible position that the employment minister placed on the AIRC.

The national retailers association has said employers will have no choice but to pass increased costs on to consumers and reduce staff levels as a direct result of the employment minister’s award modernisation request. The restaurant and caterers association of Australia has submitted that Labor’s award modernisation request will add up to $40 million in additional labour costs, leading to excessive closures and job losses—another botched policy decision leading to job losses and inflationary outcomes.

A close inspection of recent ABS statistics shows that there has been an 800 per cent increase in working days lost in the first six months of the Rudd government compared with the first six months of last year. When the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations was asked about this very serious issue that affects workplaces across Australia—

See this speech in context