Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against the motion moved by the member for Bowman. I feel that this is an opportune moment to make a contribution about an important area of policy, one that relates to one of Labor's election commitments that was made in the lead-up to the recent federal election—the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the ABCC. The abolition of the ABCC was a well-publicised policy of the Labor Party in the lead-up to this year's federal election. It should not come as a shock to anyone in this place, the media, the construction sector or even the ABCC itself that Labor intends to fulfil its election commitments in government. Far be it from me to say otherwise.

As we heard from Senator Hume on Insiders yesterday, the coalition doesn't have policies. But the ABCC, in punishing workers and their representatives, isn't a policy for those opposite; it's part of their DNA. Former prime minister Tony Abbott always made reference to returning the industrial relations pendulum back to the sensible centre. How a body that has such coercive powers to use against ordinary construction workers can ever be described as a return to the sensible centre is beyond me. Building and construction workers should be subject to the same laws and regulations as other workers. They aren't some special class of employees that require additional restrictions placed on them. They should, however, be afforded the same protections, especially when it comes to upholding safety standards on worksites—something the ABCC has been seemingly silent about. But, if a union logo were on a safety sign, you'd soon feel the weight of their office upon you.

Too often we have seen the ABCC used as a political weapon, only for the end result to be discredited in the courts and the media, again at the cost of millions of dollars by way of court costs and legal fees. The ABCC has spent, and continues to spend, millions of taxpayer dollars in prosecuting workers for wearing stickers on their hard hats, and does very little to improve any of the problems this motion pretends to say that the restoration of the ABCC will achieve.

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