Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to listen to those interjecting from the other side that we should just have the union bosses ruling the country. They have done a great job with their factional people here in this parliament, haven't they! Look at the unholy mess they have got us in at the moment. We have got a Prime Minister who cannot be trusted, we have got the Minister for Foreign Affairs trying to seek her job and we have got a factional impasse because no-one knows who should lead the country.

Government members interjecting—

That is right. We should just let the big union bosses rule everything! What we are trying to do here is make sure that illegal activity by organised labour does not get out of control, especially in the building and construction industry. What are you going to replace the ABCC with? Sadly, a toothless tiger. The AiG says:

The compulsory examination powers are needed at the present time as much as ever. While the reforms introduced after the Royal Commission addressed the unlawful and inappropriate conduct that permeated the industry, industrial unrest and disputation has been steadily increasing in the industry and damaging and unproductive industrial relations practices have been creeping back onto building and construction sites across Australia.

They go on to quote the foreword to the annual report of the ABCC for the financial year ending 30 June 2011, in which the ABC Commissioner, Leigh Johns, identified that:

During 2010-11, unlawful industrial disputes, the traditional ‘bread-and-butter’ work of the ABCC, continued to occur at levels that underscored the need for strong enforcement of workplace laws. The pernicious effects of unlawful industrial action are unacceptable, particularly so on projects of social and national significance like the Monash Freeway, the Melbourne Markets relocation, Gold Coast University Hospital or the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant.

One only has to look at the record days lost on the desalinisation plant in Victoria to see why the ABCC needs to remain and needs to continue to do its job.

The new body that has been established within Fair Work Australia to replace the incredibly successful Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner is not an independent body. So not only will it be toothless but it is not an independent body. It is controlled by the minister. And who is our new minister? Where does he come from? How independent will he be? How objective will he be? We have got the kid back in control of the candy store. That is what this bill will do. What we will see is a complete imbalance in the way these issues are dealt with. The sad fact is that ultimately that will lead to a productivity decline in this country. That is the last thing that we need at the moment. Our manufacturing sector is about to get hit by one of the biggest hits to their productivity that you could imagine—the carbon tax. This is especially so in the state of Victoria because it is going to impact on power, which is the competitive advantage that our industries and especially our manufacturers in Victoria have over our international competitors. Combine that now with this bill.

Those opposite, and I have been listening to their speeches as they have gone on, have said that all this will do is redress an imbalance. Yet no-one has been through and systematically examined what the Cole royal commission found—the intimidation and the thuggery, and the fact that if there was not some sort of body set up with powers to deal directly with it that none of this would stop. Even though we have had the ABCC there, we have still seen examples of this occurring. So why won't the government allow it to finish its job? Why don't they make sure that it has all been stamped out? It is illegal activity that we are trying to get rid of here. It is not, as those opposite say, designed to get rid of organised labour in this country. It is designed to get rid of the illegal activity. Those on the other side should be supporting the work that the ABCC is doing, because the more we can do to stamp out this type of activity the better it will be across the nation for organised labour in general. The coalition strongly opposes the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill 2011. In many ways the title of the bill is a complete misnomer. Sadly, at a time when we should be looking to do everything we can to increase the productivity of this nation, it will do the exact opposite. It will set up a body which they have deliberately given no teeth to. Basically, it will become an irrelevant bureaucracy—another one created by the government. Not only that; it gives power not to an independent body but back to the minister and, as we know, the new minister is going to find it very difficult to be independent and objective. He will be dealing with his union mates and he will be conflicted in trying to continue to stamp out illegal activity. I would hope the starting point that we can all agree on when it comes to this bill would be that there is no place for illegal activity anywhere in the Australian economy and in particular the building and construction industry.

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