Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition decides what goes on the MPI. He said 'let's talk about the ABCC'. That is what he says is the most important thing in Australia today that this parliament should be debating. So I am just going to declare a few things before I get into this detail that we see today, where we have seen the trap of putting ideology before evidence, because that is what this debate is really about. I want to declare a few things. Firstly, three of my brothers, a couple of nephews and my brother's partner all work in the construction industry. A few of them are carpenters.

One of my brothers actually worked on a crane that worked on this building; they have been in the construction industry for that long. When one of the cranes collapsed in the construction of this building, he was working down at the Canberra Casino and they brought their crane to lift up that crane. Sadly, another one of my brothers was working at Twin Towns, if you know where that is, right on the border between Queensland and New South Wales. In fact, the crane was in Queensland and the jib where it was picking up was in New South Wales and the crane collapsed and killed the two blokes standing right beside my other brother, my younger brother Timothy. So I know a little bit about the construction industry right now because I have brothers who work in it right now.

Just for the sake of the opposition leader, the commercial construction industry is completely different to the residential industry. Some news, some research: the CFMMEU doesn't have coverage in the residential building area. They have coverage in the big construction projects, like the Townsville casino. I just want to point that out because, if I went and saw one of my nephews working on a residential site, I could walk in with this Eureka badge or with my book with the Eureka sticker on it and that would not be a problem. But if I went to see one of my brothers or nephews working at the casino in Brisbane right now, that could be a problem—if I could get on the site, obviously. That would be a problem because that sticker is a problem. This badge is a problem at the casino site. But because of the ideological pursuits of those opposite rather than the evidence, the main evidence that we need to extract from this MPI is: has there been an improvement in construction productivity? No. As we have heard from other speakers, there's been an increase in deaths under the ABCC's watch. So let's get those facts out there right from the start.

The ABCC is not designed to deal with breaches of criminal law, as the member for Watson, the minister, pointed out right from the start—something that the Leader of the Opposition didn't seem to understand. That's what we have the police for. They will actually go out and deal with criminal behaviour that everyone on this side of the parliament, from the Prime Minister down, condemns. So you can keep dredging up fact after fact after fact. We hate that sort of behaviour. We're all members of unions and we all hate that sort of behaviour, okay? So don't try and start with that school of smear that the Leader of the Opposition started with in question time. The principal sets the tone for the school of smear. If you're going to follow that, shame on you. This parliament can be better than that. This parliament can be so much better.

I know that this sector has challenges. It's a dangerous place. I know the difference between union sites and non-union sites right in the middle of Brisbane city. You can go from one site to the next. You deal with labour hire people and what they're paid on one site and with what people are paid next door. One site is dangerous; the other is not, because unions are workers. You keep talking about unions and workers. Well, guess what: unions are workers. The Labor Party has a proud connection to the union movement. We're here because of workers. We believe in looking after workers, and letting them come home safely from a construction site is a pretty bloody good start, I say, because I've seen what happens. My little brother has never recovered from the physical injuries that happened when the crane hit him and also from the psychological damage. Sorry to name you, Tim, but you know I love you. It's a dangerous industry, and we need good strong unions doing the right thing. They should be treated the same as every other worker in every other workplace.

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