Stuart Henry (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister inform the House of the levels of industrial disputation in the building and construction industry? How does this compare to previous levels of industrial disputation? Is the Prime Minister aware of reasons for the reduction? Are there any alternative policies?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hasluck, a Western Australian member who knows the importance of peace on the building sites of Perth, as other members know the importance of peace on the building sites of other major capitals. I can tell the House that there has been a dramatic reduction in industrial disputes in building and construction. The September quarter of 2006 showed that 1.6 working days were lost per 1,000 employees, compared to the June quarter of 1996 where a staggering 534 working days were lost per 1,000 employees. This change is a direct result of two things: the general industrial relations law changes the government has made and the specific changes which led to the introduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which flowed from the first royal commission conducted by the Hon. Terry Cole QC.

On Tuesday, 15 May, the Master Builders Association suggested that the removal of the building commission—bear in mind, the dismantling of this commission is declared ALP policy and if the Labor Party is elected it will take away this watchdog, which has brought peace, prosperity, hope and optimism to the building and construction industry all around Australia—if those laws were repealed, would potentially result in higher building costs all around Australia. Today the Financial Review reports:

Australia’s biggest builder, led by Leighton Holdings chief executive Wal King, have warned Labor leader Kevin Rudd that the ALP’s industrial relations policies would be ‘very risky and damaging’ to the $50 billion construction industry.

To get an idea of who is licking their lips at the prospect of a Labor victory, I need go no further than my copy of the Weekend Australian where you see a photograph of Kevin Reynolds on a sparkling Perth morning having his breakfast reading his AustralianI think the West Australian is banned by the Labor Party over there, given current disputes between the state government and the editor of that newspaper—as he looks over all that he hopes one day in future to survey. As the paper says:

He can look across the Swan River to the cranes that pepper Perth’s exploding CBD, knowing that should Labor win the next federal electorate, his nemesis—the only authority in 20 years to rein in his hardline and volatile union—will be destroyed.

In other words, Kevin Reynolds is counting the days to the arrival of that great moment when, according to Greg Combet, the unions will run Australia all over again. Greg Combet gave us a glimpse—perhaps an understated glimpse but a glimpse nonetheless—of the world that would be inherited by people like Kevin Reynolds.

Cameron Thompson (Blair, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Cameron Thompson interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Blair is warned!

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let us understand that the princes who would hold the power if Labor were to win at the end of the year would not be people like Mr and Mrs Doolan of the Lilac City Motor Inn in drought ravaged Goulburn, two struggling small business operators; it would be the likes of Kevin Reynolds. Kevin Reynolds does not muck about. He is very blunt, he is very open, he is very transparent and he cannot wait until Rudd gets there. He is desperate for a change of government and on Saturday he had this to say:

“I live for the day when (the ABCC staff) are all working at Hungry Jack’s or Fast Eddy’s or Kentucky Fried Chicken.” McDonald told The Australian recently.

That is Reynolds’s mate. He continued:

“That is what’s waiting for them. They’re all ex-policemen and they can go and do whatever ex-coppers do. I’d suggest that John Lloyd and his mates—

and Lloyd runs the ABCC—

will be unemployed before I will be”.

That is the mentality—the payback mentality; the mentality that says when Labor wins, the union bosses run the country again. Greg Combet gave us a glimpse, and people like Kevin Reynolds are starting to fill in the blank spaces. What Kevin Reynolds was saying to the construction industry on Saturday, as he looked at the vista from his luxury apartment overlooking the Swan River in Perth, as he took in the vista of all that once more he will survey, in plain language, was: ‘I can’t wait for Labor to be in power again, and once again the unions will be running Australia.’