Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak about the significant changes proposed by the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Legislation Amendment (Exit Arrangements) Bill 2015 and related bills to the Comcare scheme. Labor opposes many of these bills, as the previous speaker outlined. I want to take a moment to remind the House why it is that people like me and the workers in my electorate are opposed to the changes the government has put forward in regards to Comcare in both this bill and the other bills they have tabled previously in this House.

First of all, these bills will directly and indirectly increase the risk of workplace injuries. They will put at risk the workplace health and safety of a number of Australian workers. These bills the government has put forward in relation to Comcare, including this one, will also remove the rights of Australian workers to fair and reasonable cover when they suffer the misfortune of a workplace-related illness or injury. It struck me today that there are not many Liberal MPs standing up to speak against this bill, as we have seen with previous Comcare pills; perhaps it is because they are slightly embarrassed by what they said during their contributions to this debate previously. To demonstrate how many of the members of the government—the backbenchers—misunderstand the importance of having a strong, robust workplace health and safety scheme that supports those workers who suffer an injury at work, we cannot go past the comments that were made by the member for Hinkler during the previous debate on Comcare bills that came before the House. I will quote from the Hansard for Wednesday, 26 November 2014:

… if you leave your workplace in your lunch hour and you go down the road and perform hang-gliding—or go rock-climbing, go for a run, or play Rugby League—you would expect the employer to cover these things if you are injured.

That was his contribution to this debate. Members of the government and the backbench, including the member for Hinkler, believe that what workers do on their lunchbreak is go hang-gliding; that what workers do on their lunchbreak is go rockclimbing. Just to remind the House and any people who may not have engaged in hang-gliding: it is not something you can do on your lunchbreak. You actually have to go somewhere. You have to get up; you have to have the equipment. You have to harness yourself and then run down a hill and glide. It is a fairly extreme sport. So to suggest that workers can go hang-gliding on their lunchbreak shows how out of touch this government and members of this government are about what actually happens in Australian workplaces. I have never met a nurse, a teacher or a cleaner who has gone rockclimbing or hang-gliding on their lunchbreak. What they tend to do on their lunchbreak is sit down in the tearoom. That is why it is appropriate that we have WorkCover schemes that cover the tearoom and what happens on your lunchbreak.

The problem with the Comcare package the government has put before the House is it removes cover for workers on their lunchbreak. It is a reminder to people of how out of touch this government is when it comes to workers and workplace injuries. As the previous speaker stated, what this government tends to do—not just in this bill but in their entire package around Comcare, safety rehabilitation and compensation legislation—is to water down and weaken the rights of Australian workers. This is specifically about workers in the ACT, including the workers here at Parliament House, and the many workers within the government itself. Broadly, the government claims this bill will promote fairness and equity in the outcomes for injuries of employees by targeting the support at those who need it most. Then why on earth are they seeking to water it down in this bill? It is more rhetoric from the government. Why on earth would they take away the right to protection during your lunchbreak?

It is important, when we discuss Comcare bills, that we talk specifically about the kinds of injuries that people can receive and why it is so important we have a strong supportive workplace health and safety system and WorkCover system. Contract workers here in the ACT and throughout Australia are quite often subject to some of our most horrific workplace injuries. Recently, in my own electorate, a contract worker was taken to hospital after falling into the orchestra pit of the Ulumbarra Theatre. This happened in late March. The audiovisual contractor was undertaking work for the new Ulumbarra Theatre, which was partly funded by the federal government through the former federal government's RDAF. At the time, the person responsible for the site—the department—and the council said they would work with WorkSafe Victoria to investigate the incident, which happened in late March, to ensure that the subcontractor will be properly supported and cared for.

This is again a reminder of why we need a strong and robust workplace health and safety scheme in WorkSafe. Other injuries that commonly occur in the construction industry, including here in the ACT, are around working on cranes. Working on cranes is a dangerous profession, and a man in his 30s—again, in my part of the world—was taken to Royal Melbourne Hospital with facial injuries after an accident at a New Gisborne factory on late Thursday afternoon. The WorkSafe Victoria spokesperson said to the media at the time:

… the crane's chain became snagged, causing an object to strike the man's face. WorkSafe is making inquiries.

More importantly, WorkSafe will be working with the employer to ensure that this injured worker receives their full entitlements.

With what we have going on at a state level, we need to ensure, where we have got the strongest and most supportive rules, that they are not undermined. We want to see that the ACT has, like other states—like Victoria, like New South Wales—the strongest and most comprehensive support for workers who become injured. But what we have seen from the government's package of bills around Comcare is a weakening of these rights and supports.

An another example, an injured mineworker, a father of three in Heathcote—again in my electorate—was left devastated after he was sacked from his job a few weeks after being injured at work. So it is not just about what happens when they are injured; it is about making sure that they have the proper support and recovery plans and that they are not unfairly sacked if they are injured. These are issues that have occurred just this year and last year in my electorate. Our concern is that we could see such issues across the country if we do not have a strong, robust Comcare system here in the ACT as well as interstate.

We could talk at length about the kinds of injuries that workers could have in construction or in mining. Those are the common industries that we are concerned about where injuries can occur. Some injuries that do not get as much attention are those that occur in, say, cleaning or nursing. Here at Parliament House we have a very strong team of cleaners that will be busy here working tonight after we all leave, after the budget. They are here early in the morning to make sure that our offices are clean, that we are able to enjoy a clean working space in the morning. Cleaning is one of those jobs which is very tough on the body. It is the repetitive work that you do, whether it be pushing the trolleys or whether it be the mopping. It is not like it is for us, who might go home and clean for an hour a day or a couple of hours a week. When it is your full-time job, strain is put on the body. That is why we need to make sure that, if an injury does occur in an industry like cleaning, there is a well-funded, well-supported Comcare system to support those workers.

I guess we are not surprised that this government is going after workers in the ACT, particularly our cleaners here in Parliament House, given that last year, as part of its red-tape repeal day, it proposed to cut the pay of cleaners. Whether it be cutting cleaners' pay through red-tape repeal day, repealing the Clean Start guidelines, or weakening their rights in terms of workplace health and safety, this government does not put the interests of the workers at heart. This government is more interested in the employers, which is disappointing, because it is supposed to be a government that represents all workers, all people, in Australia and not just employers.

The ACTU has raised its own concerns about this bill, as well as a number of other bills, when it comes to Comcare. The ACTU recently said that this bill:

… is a lowest common denominator approach that absolves big business their responsibility for protecting and compensating their workers if they are injured.

So, rather than our federal government showing national leadership and having the highest common denominator when it comes to workplace health and safety, when it comes to having support for workers who are injured at work, we are seeing the government go to the lowest common denominator. The ACTU went on to say:

This means less health and safety rights for workers and in the long term less viable state-based workers' compensation systems.

Workers, especially those in high-risk jobs—

as I have outlined, whether or not they are in construction—

could be excluded from compensation if they were moved onto Comcare, this is simply unacceptable …

That is why people on this side of the House continue to oppose the government's push to allow workers to be moved onto Comcare, which will strip away many of their common-law rights.

I think it is important within this debate that we focus on what is actually going on as we speak in terms of health and safety in our workplaces. Here are some of the key facts. Last year in Australia, 184 Australians—including some workers in the ACT—lost their lives at work. Those stats are from WorkSafe Australia. ABS stats show that 50 out of 1,000 workers experience a workplace injury or illness every year. That is why we need a strong and robust system in place to support these workers. The cost of workplace injuries in Australia is an estimated $60 billion, or 4.8 per cent of our GDP every year—another stat from WorkSafe Australia. These figures and facts are the reason why we need to ensure that we have a strong, robust workplace health and safety scheme.

During the break, I had the opportunity to join members of the Victorian state Labor government at the Victorian Trades Hall at a memorial that recognised Victorian workers who have lost their lives as a result of a workplace injury, an accident. It was a very moving and quite heartbreaking event to be involved in. A pair of shoes was put out for every worker that had lost their life on a Victorian worksite. My concern is that we do not want to be going to memorials like this for ACT workers. We do not want to see more and more sets of shoes being put out to acknowledge, to respect and to recognise the number of lives that are being lost every year in our workplaces.

Our government, at a federal level, needs to show leadership. It needs to go to the highest common denominator, not the lowest common denominator, when it comes to workplace health and safety and when it comes to a Comcare scheme.

I urge the government to rethink these bills, including the other bills that they have put forward, to start listening to workers and their workplace delegates, to start working with workers to ensure that they have the best possible support when they are injured, because with the best possible support they have the best opportunity of recovery and returning to work.

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