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

I rise to speak against this bill before the chamber, the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill 2011, which is another broken promise from this Labor government. Worse than that, it reflects more about the internal machinations of the prime ministership of our country than it does about a genuine attempt to bring about good reform and productivity-increasing changes to our economy. This is a deal with the Left of the Labor Party and the Greens party to ensure that this Prime Minister is propped up for just a little bit longer to hold the Minister for Foreign Affairs at bay. It was promised before the 2007 election that this would not be changed, but we know and we knew then that the powers within the union movement, the millions of dollars of donations they receive from these unions, would eventually hold sway and this bill would be introduced and the powers of the ABCC would be gutted absolutely.

The ABCC has actually been effective. It has done what the royal commission sought it to do when it handed down its report in February 2003, some nine years ago now. It did take some time for the Howard government to get the necessary reforms in place, and in 2005 they were able to get through these reforms, and they were good reforms. They sought to bring the rule of law back into an industry which had been marked by complete disregard for the normal laws of our country for too long. That had an effect not just on the operators in that industry but also on the prices of properties that Australians had to pay for, which of course impacts on the economy and reduces the amount of money that people are able to spend on other productive things. It impacts on inflation and impacts on the employment prospects of many Australians.

The royal commission found that this industry was plagued by behaviour that was just unacceptable in a modern society. It was plagued by violence, by corruption, by the use of threats to stand over contractors, to stand over companies. It has to be said that the royal commission found some of the same behaviour by some of those companies involved also. This industry had operated like a jungle with the rule of the jungle for too long and it took extraordinary laws, absolutely extraordinary powers, for this industry to be brought back under control.

What we have now seen is that this Labor government is desperate to hang on, obsessed with itself, obsessed with one job, the job of the person who sits next to the dispatch box. The current occupant, the member for Blaxland, hopes to be there one day too, it must be noted. This is a deal with the Greens, a deal with the Left of the Labor Party, to ensure the stability of this Prime Minister for just a little bit longer. This is something the Labor Party very clearly said they would not do. They said that they would not change the ABCC. They said they would not gut this important cop on the beat. They said they would not bow to the millions of dollars they get from these trade unions to influence this policy, to change this policy which has changed behaviour in this industry, which has ensured that this industry is once again competitive, is once again able to produce high quality at lower cost, reducing the pressure on consumers and reducing the pressure on the taxpayers, it must be said. Someone not often spoken about that in this place anymore is the taxpayer and their money being used properly.

We know that the government is not all that interested in spending money properly or wisely. That is why we have seen a deterioration in the Australian Commonwealth finances from a $20 billion surplus in 2006-07 to now nearly $140 billion in net debt, $300 billion in gross debt, and blowing out day after day. This is part of the problem we see, this reregulation in this area. We have seen this day after day over the Christmas period and most of last year—and some people have been making this point for a while—that the changes made in the workplace relations area, including in this particular area, are doing enormous damage to our future prospects as a nation, to our future productive capacity as a nation.

The member for McEwen may shake his head, but I do not think Marius Kloppers lies. I do not think there is any need for Marius Kloppers to lie. I do not think the head of Toyota lies. We hear much about the car industry from those on the other side. We hear much about how great the car industry is, how it must be saved, that we have to keep co-investing to ensure we save it. But we knew nothing about the microeconomic reforms which actually would ensure its survival, ensuring that people can be employed at reasonable rates of pay and reasonable conditions—but not in the position where the union movement in this country is given such power that it is able to bring massive corporations to their knees. That is what we are seeing with BHP with the coking-coal dispute in Queensland. We are seeing a massive global corporation employing hundreds of thousands of people, one of Australia's great prosperity drivers—

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