Peter Hendy (Eden-Monaro, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Today I rise in support of the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill 2013 and the accompanying bill and to oppose the opposition's amendment. This bill represents a critical piece of economic reform. It will, in a single piece of legislation, significantly boost productivity in this country.

The building and construction industry is a vital industry for Australia. It is a critical industry in terms of its inputs to basically every other industry in Australia. If the building and construction industry is not operating efficiently and in a productive way then that adversely impacts on the manufacturing industry, the mining industry, the agricultural industry and the services industry. It is a vital link in the chain.

Unhappily, over the years the trade unions in that industry have been very well aware of the importance of this link in the chain and they have exercised their industrial muscle to the detriment of the industry and the Australian economy. It has been irresponsible. It has been economically destructive. It has been selfish. The national interest has been trampled by an unrepentant union movement. With this bill we will stop this in its tracks. We will restore the rule of law. This bill re-establishes the Australian Building and Construction Commission. It was and will again become a strong watchdog that will maintain the rule of law to protect workers and constructors and to improve productivity on building sites and construction projects, whether onshore or offshore. The last Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government bowed to the requests of their union masters. They had said they would keep a tough cop on the beat and they caved in to union pressure. It was one of the bad policies extracted as a price for union money and resources to prop up the ALP.

This bill will reverse Labor's changes to the laws which underpinned the Australian Building and Construction Commission before it was abolished in 2012. The bill prohibits unlawful industrial action, unlawful picketing, and coercion and discrimination. Penalties that are high enough to provide an effective deterrent will apply to breaches of these provisions. A wide range of effective remedies such as injunctions will also be available to the ABCC and persons affected by unlawful behaviour.

As the Minister for Education and Leader of the House stated when introducing this bill, for many years, the building and construction sector provided the worst examples of industrial relations lawlessness. He noted that it was the then Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations in the Howard government, the member for Warringah and now Prime Minister, who was prepared to tackle this longstanding bad behaviour and in 2001 established a royal commission into the building and construction industry. That was the Cole royal commission. History shows that the final report of that royal commission provided compelling evidence of the need for reform in this industry. Amongst other things it found consistent evidence that building sites and construction projects in Australia were hotbeds of intimidation, lawlessness, thuggery and violence. Projects were delayed, costs blew out and investment in our economy and in infrastructure was being jeopardised.

So we are not making this up. This is not some ideological obsession, as members of the opposition want Australians to believe. We held a royal commission. It found multiple cases of lawlessness and recommended strong measures to solve the problem. Let me say it again: central to the royal commission's findings was industry lawlessness. As the minister noted in his second reading speech, witnesses reported criminal conduct, unlawful and inappropriate conduct, including breaches of relevant workplace relations and work health and safety legislation, and a disregard for Commonwealth and state revenue statutes. In response, the Howard government established the Australian Building and Construction Commission in 2005. I want to recognise the great contribution to economic reform made then by the member for Menzies, now the Minister for Social Services, through the creation of the original ABCC.

As a former chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, I know both the damage that rogue unions were causing in the pre-ABCC era and the fine results that the ABCC produced in its years of existence. For example, a 2013 Independent Economics report on the state of the sector during this period found that building and construction industry productivity grew by more than nine per cent, consumers were better off by around $7.5 billion annually and fewer working days were lost through industrial action.

Who on the Labor side actually abolished this key element of economic reform? It was none other than the Leader of the Opposition as the Minister for Workplace Relations in the former government. As many people have observed, he was less a minister for workplace relations and more a minister for unions. The now Leader of the Opposition gave in to union demands and abolished the ABCC in 2012 and replaced it with a regulator with significantly reduced funding and powers. As we know, this saw the bad old days return—wildcat stoppages, militant protests, demands from unions that their mates be employed on projects ahead of non-unionists and an increase in construction industry disputes to a seven-year high.

As the minister noted, one of the worst examples of this occurred late last year, merely weeks after the ABCC was abolished. There was violence on the streets of Melbourne, with militant union protestors intimidating the community. Their supporters attacked police horses. Images of these protests were seen on television screens around the world. This was a dreadful message to send around the world. Potential international investors recoiled in horror. Behind it all was one of the usual suspects. It was the CFMEU, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. With the ABCC gone, its bullyboy tactics emerged straightaway—thank you very much, Leader of the Opposition. There were also violent disputes at the Little Creatures brewery site in Geelong and at City West Water in Werribee, and just two months ago we saw CFMEU officials threaten to stop work on a Lend Lease project in Adelaide if a union flag was not moved to a more prominent position.

As a fig leaf, the Gillard Labor government set up a severely curtailed version of the ABCC called the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate. As well as having its powers substantially curtailed, it faced significant reductions in funding and staffing of around 30 per cent. Again, this was all thanks to the now Leader of the Opposition.

Prior to the election, we committed to re-establishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission within 100 days of parliament first sitting. Our government was given a clear mandate by the Australian people to make this change. We also promised that a re-established Australian Building and Construction Commission would administer a code that will govern industrial relations arrangements for government funded projects. This step will ensure that taxpayers' dollars are used efficiently. We also promised we would work with the state governments to ensure consistency with guidelines introduced by those governments who saw the urgent need to set up their own schemes in response to the Gillard government's abolition of the ABCC. A new statutory code is being developed that is intended to commence at the same time as the re-established Australian Building and Construction Commission on 1 January 2014.

The position of Australian Building and Construction Commissioner will be supported by deputy commissioners. The agency will be properly funded to ensure it can do its work. The funding taken away by the Labor government, led by the current Leader of the Opposition, will be restored. In addition, higher penalties will be imposed for unlawful behaviour. They are justified in an industry that is so critical to Australia's economic performance. As the minister noted, building and construction organisations are well resourced, and some show a blatant disregard for court orders and shrug off fines as simply part of the cost of doing business. The legislation also reinstates civil remedy provisions in relation to coercion and discrimination and makes it clear that project agreements are unenforceable where the intention is to secure standard employment conditions relating to a particular site or sites covering employees from different enterprises. These types of project agreements inhibit genuine enterprise bargaining.

In conclusion, I note again that this is a major piece of economic reform. I strongly support this legislation and commend the Prime Minister and ministers for making it one of the earliest pieces of legislation on the agenda of the new government.

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