Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Responsibility) Share this | Hansard source

While the minister receives some briefing on that, I want to make some comments about amendment (9), which I think is a consequential amendment in relation to building contractors. As we understand it, these amendments give inspection and prosecution powers to Australian Building and Construction Commission inspectors. We have had a consistent position in relation to the building industry, which has been a focus of much regulation and intervention by the government. Labor will never stand to support any corrupt practices, regardless of the industry in which they occur. However, we completely disagree with the idea that separate industrial rules and regulations for separate industries and workplaces is required. As I recall, Senator Murray, we have had fairly lengthy discussions, including some that went into the early hours of the morning, about this over a number of years. We made the point that, if there were issues with enforcement, they ought to be dealt with in the context of the existing legislation that applies to all sectors of Australian industry rather than in the context of an entirely new, separate regulatory system, which we consider is being set up to implement in large part a political agenda of the government. We will be opposing amendment (9).