Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care and Minister for Sport. Will the minister update the House on the upcoming Commonwealth Games, to be held on the Gold Coast in 2018? Is the minister aware of any concerns arising in the games' preparation?

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fadden, representing the northern part of the beautiful Gold Coast, for his question. I have already detailed in this House the shameful way in which the CFMEU has delayed the construction of hospital and aged-care facilities for elderly and vulnerable Australians. Unfortunately, the news gets worse.

We are incredibly proud to be hosting the Commonwealth Games on the beautiful Gold Coast in 2018. It is an opportunity to showcase our hosting talents, and it is the first time a Commonwealth Games in Australia has been held outside a major city. It is very exciting. We are providing the lion's share of the funding: the Commonwealth government is providing $154 million towards a successful Commonwealth games; clearly, there are massive infrastructure spends associated with that. So how disappointed are we to hear—yet again—that on the construction sites associated with the Commonwealth Games, the bullies, louts, thieves, thugs and perjurers—not my words but those of Justice Heydon—are at work, if you can call it work, yet again. The Australian reported back in June developments that transpired on the building site for the Carrara Stadium. Carrara Stadium is where the opening and closing ceremonies are going to be held. It is where the athletics finals will be held: we hope to see Sally Pearson run a 100-metre-hurdle gold medal there; we hope to see Kurt Fearnley win the wheelchair marathon as he comes into that stadium. You would think the workers of the CFMEU would make a bit of an effort—actually, Mr Speaker, it is not the workers; I have no truck with the workers. It is the bosses—it is the bosses and their relationship with members opposite. We have no issue with the workers, who are being led to this. As The Australian said, the Federal Court heard that workers at the Commonwealth Games site clocked on at 6.30 am for coffee and a toolbox meeting until 7.30, before the first two-hour, union-led communication meeting. That flowed straight into a half-hour smoko until 10 am, then an hour of very little work, until the second union meeting from 11 am to 1 pm. A half-hour lunch break was followed by about an hour of work, before the workday finished as early as 2.30 pm. Is it any wonder that the cost of construction has been estimated to be at least 30 per cent higher than it should be? And long-suffering taxpayers are bearing that cost. We are not prepared to let an event like the Commonwealth Games on the world stage be held to ransom by the Labor Party's henchmen and -women in the CFMEU. We know that Labor needs to stop running a CFMEU protection racket and bring back the ABCC.