Jamie Briggs (Mayo, Liberal Party, Chairman of the Scrutiny of Government Waste Committee) Share this | Hansard source

The members opposite seem to think that you can just continue to apply standards to industry that are far above what is affordable in the future, and the building industry is a perfect example of that. If you let unions run rampant, if you let unlawful behaviour run rampant, as it has historically—and the royal commission found this—you will find that there will be fewer Australians employed, it will cost more and our productivity will continue to go down, as we are seeing right now.

This is an important bill. If it passes, this industry will go back to the bad old days of the past. It will go back to where people could not go to work to achieve good outcomes and a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. They will go to work and be bullied and intimidated and exposed to the worst excesses of an industry that has been guided by lawlessness in the past. This bill should not be allowed to pass for that reason.

The agency has done an excellent job, firstly under the leadership of John Lloyd, who was an outstanding Australian and an outstanding thinker in these areas. He did an outstanding job in bringing this industry back from the very worst excesses we had seen for so long.

You have to ask yourself what the motive is for this bill. Is it about making a better industry or is it about rewarding mates? Is it about rewarding those who have donated so much for so long, rewarding those who sit on the back benches of the Australian Labor Party and rewarding those who help prop the government up? The answer to all those questions is that it is about the Labor Party and the prime ministership; it is not about the good productive capacity of our economy for the future. It should be opposed in the strongest terms.

See this speech in context