Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My electorate of Maribyrnong covers some of the industrial heartland of Melbourne, areas where workers have historically worked in tough, dangerous jobs. One of the most disappointing aspects of the opposition’s recently confected attacks on the Rudd government is the crocodile tears they have cried on workplace safety, as their record in government contradicts their recent new-found interest. In my work in the union movement I sadly attended the funerals of people killed at work, needless deaths that we have tried to stop happening again. There is no consolation for the death of young people in the full bloom of their health and all of us know it. There can be no consolation at all for the families of these young people who get killed at work.

Over the years and the decades, things have become better in Australia. Through the hard work of royal commission after royal commission, coronial inquest after coronial inquest and union action after union action, and the seismic decisions on asbestos, tobacco and the polluted waste dumps and waterways, we have inched our way forward towards more safety on the job in our nation. We have got OH&S, but it took years of local research into local danger, years of workers pushing and agitating for change. These improvements are one of the proudest achievements of the union movement and its members.

We got OH&S and in 1996 the previous Liberal government greatly disliked it. They did much to avoid it and the record reflects this. Everything was done to soften regulations, to reduce the power of watchdogs and to take the voice of workers out of the safety debate. They talked instead of OH&S culture, safety management, management of acceptable risk and risk assessments. The one thing that they never talk about is talking to the workers. That was their no-go zone; that was their taboo. Their ideological opposition to unions is typified by the mindless and destructive zealotry that was Work Choices. It meant they could not bring themselves to discuss safety with the people who dealt with hazards every day. They gutted Worksafe Australia and did not replace it.

After a decade of neglect, we are now trying to bring occupational health and safety back through Safe Work Australia. We are working with the states to harmonise national OH&S laws, which will put an obligation on employers to provide a safe workplace and punish those who do not, and to give workers the power to stop unsafe work, a power currently available to only 14½ per cent of the Australian workforce. This seems like common sense to me and it is common sense, unless of course you are still wearing the Work Choices blinkers, as too many on the other side are. Ensuring that workers come home to their families in one piece and are not exposed to chemicals that can destroy their health and poison their retirement is part of what the Australian people expect. Each year, 800 people die from workplace related injuries. Approximately 2,200 die from industrial disease. This needs to stop and I am proud to be part of a government that is working to rebuild workplace health and safety in this country. The way to do that is through working with the workers and listening to their voices, rather than just relying on a poor record of 12 years of Liberal government. (Time expired)