Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Macdonald says that it is a long bow, but my personal experience on building and construction sites is that the safer sites are where you have the strongest union presence. One of the issues that has been made very clear to me is that as the unions’ role on building sites has been diminished under this government’s legislation, so safety on site has suffered.

This is the first example I have been given an insight into which starts to provide a very tangible expression of the change of culture that appears to be occurring. I would like to refer to the federal government’s own code of conduct. This code theoretically requires head contractors to ensure that their site is safe and that their subcontractors obey the law. That is my understanding of the law. I think we are all familiar with the Building and Construction Commission prosecuting unions, and yet they tend to be a tad idle when an employer fails to abide by the law. Thiess again demonstrated a remarkable lack of concern for the workers when, following this latest incident—which, just for Senator Macdonald’s benefit, is the one that occurred in February this year—