Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

The Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill 2013 is nothing more than a continuation of a decade-long obsession by the coalition to attack and destroy workers and worker organisations in this country. It is an attack that started in 2001, when the Cole royal commission was commissioned by none other than the current Prime Minister. That in turn led to the establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, under the premise that the industry needed to be cleaned up. What we got was an organisation whose focus was almost exclusively on the workers within the Australian building and construction industry. It had scant regard for the builders and construction companies themselves—their illegal practices were entirely ignored by those opposite and the commission they established.

When Labor came to office it changed the rules in a way that brought balance and fairness to the management of improper behaviour and practices right across the board. We did that through the introduction of Fair Work legislation and the Fair Work Building and Construction Agency. We did that because we understood and accepted that some action needed to be taken. But we were not prepared to go to the extreme measures that the previous government had used. The Fair Work Building and Construction Agency, established by Labor, has sufficient powers to look into, prosecute if necessary and carry out whatever investigations are required in order to ensure that the industry operates in accordance with the standards that we would all expect. But it does so without denying anyone their natural rights—unlike this legislation.

This legislation not only seeks to re-establish the ABCC but also includes and re-includes coercive powers that will compel ordinary Australians to be subjected to secret interviews, be denied legal representation of their choice, and be threatened with imprisonment it they refuse to cooperate. The bill also extends the reach of the ABCC into picketing, offshore construction and the transport and supply of goods to building sites. It not only reinstates the Howard government's earlier legislation but goes much further. The legislation also extends the ABCC's jurisdiction to offshore places—to as far as Australia's exclusive economic zone or waters above the continental shelf—and, more significantly, it will encompass the transport and supply of goods to building sites, including to resource platforms.

Whilst the government's rhetoric is about fairness and the middle ground, the details of this legislation prove otherwise. Earlier this morning, in the first item on the agenda of business of this House—the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2013—we saw another attempt to attack workers and their organisations in this country. I think it is fair to say that Australians believe in a fair go, in treating people fairly, and in treating people in the way they themselves would like to be treated. In fact, Australia has a proud record of being one of the founding nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On Tuesday we celebrated International Human Rights Day, and I heard members opposite speaking of the importance of protecting those rights and the decency that comes from them.

This legislation contravenes not only the conventions contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but everything we have ever stood for and fought for in this country for over a century. I ask members opposite: would you agree to being subjected to the laws enshrined in this bill? I very much doubt that. Of course, the truth is that members opposite do not work in the building and construction industry—they probably never have and probably never will. I will also be interested to see whether this legislation is referred to the Joint Standing Committee on Human Rights and, if so, how that committee responds. I would also be very interested to know whether the government sought advice as to whether this legislation complies with Australia's human rights obligations contained under any international convention to which Australia is a signatory. If so, will the minister table any legal response that it received.

The truth is that the Fair Work Building and Construction Agency already has sufficient powers to deal with any unlawful activities within the industry. I noted the comments of the member for Cowan earlier on, when he was referring to the current Grocon dispute in Victoria. He alluded to the penalties that are likely to be imposed on the parties to that dispute. If the laws are already there and being applied, why would you need to change them? I thought he actually argued the case for leaving things the way they are right now. In fact, there are a range of industrial and criminal laws already available to authorities to control any unlawful activities, and those laws are available to the authorities if any alleged unlawful activities occur. By its very description, if an activity is illegal or unlawful, it means that we have laws which are being breached. So the obvious question is not why we should be introducing new laws but why are we not enforcing the current laws? It is because the agencies in question need to be better resourced.

The government knows that this proposal is extreme, and that is why it only applies to one sector of society. If it were to apply to every sector of society, the government knows that the Australian people would not cop it, and that there would be outrage over it. By vilifying and targeting one sector, and one sector alone, and turning the rest of the community against that sector, the government believes that, by stealth, it can get away with it. It is interesting, in fact unique, that these laws are limited to a specific industry and that they propose coercive powers.

It is a flawed comparison when the minister and other members of this place stand up and say that the ATO, ASIC and the ACCC have similar powers. Firstly, whether it is ASIC, the ATO, the ACCC, or others in respect of their powers they are not confined to one single sector of society. They apply to all Australians in a non-discriminatory way. Secondly, those powers do not prevent the attendance of legal counsel of choice at any of the interviews that those authorities conduct. Thirdly, in his second reading speech the minister referred to the information gathering powers of the ABCC being similar to those of other government agencies. He does not, however, refer to the coercive powers of the ABCC inspectors which are entirely separate to the information gathering powers he refers to.

In a genuine attempt to bring some real balance to this issue the previous Labor government commissioned the Wilcox inquiry which, in turn, led to the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill 2011. The Office of the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate was then created to regulate the building and construction industry. That bill brought some balance and some fairness to the process, as I have previously stated. The point I want to make is that that legislation was passed in April 2012, just around 18 months ago. The agency came into effect about one year ago. We have not even had a year of it in operation to properly assess and evaluate its performance, and now the government comes in and says that it wants to change it again. Clearly, this government is driven by ideology and nothing else because, if the government were legitimate and serious about wanting to improve the situation, at the very least it would wait a reasonable amount of time, assess what has happened in the last 12 months, maybe even longer, and then make a judgement call as to whether further amendments would be required.

The fact is that the Fair Work Building and Construction Division is undertaking more investigations, concluding investigations, getting matters to court faster and recovering more money for workers in industry than the ABCC, which existed between 2005 and 2012. Over $2 million in unpaid wages and entitlements for more than 1,500 workers has been secured by Fair Work Building and Construction. These were the sorts of breaches that the ABCC was never, ever focused on. Importantly, labour productivity has increased over the last 10 quarters and, on average, is almost three times higher under Fair Work than under Work Choices.

Building workers have been and continue to be critical in the building of our country. They do work that many others would never, ever do. They work in extreme weather conditions such as outdoors on freezing cold mornings and on building sites in the hot sun in the middle of summer. They often face risks that, again, no other person in this country faces. As was previously pointed out, the member for Moreton, when he spoke on this matter, highlighted the number of serious accidents and even deaths that occur within the industry.

Building workers are entitled to stand up for their rights and for fair and safe working conditions without being persecuted, as was Ark Tribe in Adelaide, in 2008, for attending a stop work meeting called in relation to safety concerns at a building site. Ark Tribe was not a union leader, he was just a worker on the site who understood that there were some serious safety concerns and wanted to bring them to the attention of the authorities and the building company. For that he was dragged before the ABCC and taken to court. Ultimately the court found in his favour.

If the government seriously believes that there is a problem with the construction sector, why does it simply not extend the powers of Fair Work Building and Construction? Why does it need to go to the extreme steps that it is taking and reintroduce the ABCC with the kinds of powers that no other agency in this country has and no-one who generally believes in fairness would ever agree to? The government wants to reintroduce this legislation because, as I said from the very outset, this is a government that is intent on attacking workers in this country, wherever they may be, and intent on destroying the unions that support those workers. We are seeing it through this legislation, and we are seeing it through other legislation which indirectly does exactly the same thing. This legislation is, in my view, not only unnecessary and uncalled for but is also un-Australian.

The member for Gorton, as the opposition spokesman on industrial matters, has introduced some amendments to this legislation. The amendments are, I believe, more than appropriate and ought to be supported by this House. I support the amendments moved by the member for Gorton, and I believe that this House should seriously ask the question: is this the kind of legislation we want for this country, and is it legislation that members opposite would be prepared to live under if it applied to them?

(Quorum formed)

Debate adjourned.

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