Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Has the minister seen reports of a $32 million payment to a major construction company as settlement for delays caused by union activity at the Southern Cross Railway Station development in Melbourne? What is the government doing to protect the economy from costly industrial disputes? Are there any threats to achieving low industrial disputation?

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question. Indeed, I am aware of reports in today’s Herald Sun that the Bracks Labor government is wasting $32 million of Victorian taxpayers’ money on a settlement as a result of disruptive union activity. This project, the Southern Cross station in Melbourne, was due to be completed more than 18 months ago and what we have seen there is a project which has experienced delays and, indeed, cost blow-outs. This was a direct result of union activity on the site which saw the union shop stewards controlling everything. To quote from the report, ‘You could not do anything unless you had the consent of the stewards to run your program—everything from ordering concrete trucks to the induction of new employees.’

There has been no industry in Australia in greater need of a comprehensive clean-up than the building industry. After years of unlawful and corrupt conduct, the government’s reforms are delivering opportunity in a new era which is characterised by efficiency and legality rather than the unlawfulness and corruption of the past. The national rate of disputation has fallen to the lowest levels in Australia, indeed, in the building and construction industry alone. When the Leader of the Opposition was the employment minister in Australia—the last time he had some responsibility for some aspect of the economy in Australia—the number of working days lost in this country was 104 per thousand employees. What we have seen in the latest set of data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics is a figure of just three—three working days lost per thousand employees. So when this man was responsible, 104 working days lost per thousand employees; today, just three. That is an indication of the success of these reforms which the government has put in place.

I am asked by the member for Deakin if there are threats. Of course, the Leader of the Opposition has opposed all of these reforms to the building construction industry in Australia. Why: because he is beholden to his union masters. He gets directions from them every morning. He was quoted in a doorstop in September as saying:

I speak with the … trade union leadership on a daily basis.

They tell him what he should do about this. If given the opportunity, the Leader of the Opposition would rip up these laws to the building construction industry, would drive up disputes in Australia again and would effectively drive up the cost of housing affordability in this country.