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

This week we have had a lot of huff and puff from the government and members of the National Party about the backpacker tax, demanding that Labor support the backpacker tax changes, even though they were the ones who delayed for 16 months. There is all this huff and puff in the media but here we are today and it is still not on the agenda to be debated today.

What the government and members of the National Party have also failed to do this week is to acknowledge the tragedy that occurred in Perth. At approximately three o'clock on Monday, 10 October, a 27-year-old German backpacker fell 35 metres to her death on a construction project in the Perth CBD. This is one kilometre from the site where two Irish backpackers were crushed and killed by a concrete panel just under 12 months ago. When CFMEU officials entered the site 40 minutes later the job was still going. Despite the horror of the fatality, it was clearly business as usual. They did not even bother to contact the police. It took an ABC journalist before the police was called.

This is what is happening to some of our backpackers. It is tragic. There are 200,000 backpackers in this country at the moment, and 38,000 of them work in agriculture. What about the rest? We need to ensure that they have good workplace practices. (Time expired)

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