Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

In the haze of contest this afternoon, I think there are some things we can agree on: firstly, that it's critical that Australia has a productive, prosperous and internationally competitive building industry. It's also critical that we maintain the rule of law on Australian building sites. Of course, that's why, in 2017, we re-established the ABCC.

Talking of the performance of the ABCC, since 2016 it's seen a success rate of 91 per cent. It has successfully pursued 2,502 contraventions and seen $16,423,918 in penalties. Now, that's more money than you can fly a rocket ship over, but it's eclipsed only by how much the CFMMEU or its predecessors have been fined by the ABCC and/or its predecessors since establishment, which is more than $22 million. I think it is important that we understand what is going on here. I don't profess to know about the lived experience of everyone in this place, but I'm one of very few people, I hope, in this place who has lived experience of a loved one dying on a building site, so I know deeply what that causes and the hurt it causes and how important safety on a building site is.

But let me take you to a few examples of behaviour on building sites and around building sites which I respectfully suggest to you has nothing to do with creating more and safer building sites. Amongst the material prosecutions brought by the ABCC are instances where a female official from the ABCC was threatened by a union official with being gang-raped as she inspected the site. That same official was spat at while on the site. I respectfully suggest to you that behaviour doesn't have any place on an Australian worksite or, indeed, anywhere in civil society, but it can't be defended on the basis that this is about ensuring safe worksites.

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