Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Including Tasmania. Uniform national workplace laws for the private sector will end the cost and confusion for businesses, particularly when they are dealing with separate and sometimes conflicting laws. Our plan is good for business, good for the economy and good for national productivity. Business understands that the harmonisation of Australia’s occupational health and safety system into one national system is a critical component of the seamless economy that the government is committed to.

The opposition say they agree, but they are not agreeing. This is their final opportunity to make a difference. The opposition can join with the government and ensure that we have a national system. They can make a difference by supporting the government in this endeavour. The practical effect of this bill will be that states and territories will enter into an agreement and then finalise, through their various processes, uniform occupational health and safety laws across Australia. The practical effect of the position taken by those opposite is the continuation of the OH&S arrangements that have plagued business during the 11 years of the Howard government. They thought that yelling from the rooftop in Canberra was the way to get things done. After almost 12 years they achieved nothing in OH&S harmonisation.

What we have put forward is an end to the 11 years of confusion. More importantly, what we have put forward will ensure that we do have harmonised OH&S laws across the states and territories. The opposition constantly talk about the need to support Australian businesses during these difficult times. Well, here is their opportunity to support uniform occupational health and safety laws by agreeing to pass this bill, which will get those laws up and running. The IGA seems to be the sticking point for the opposition.

It has been left to the Rudd Labor government to deliver on these important reforms—and we are delivering. As I mentioned earlier in the debate, COAG has agreed to the intergovernmental agreement for regulatory and operational reform in occupational health and safety, and for the first time governments from each state and territory in the Commonwealth have formally committed to the harmonisation of OH&S laws. The amendments proposed by the opposition in the Senate to the Safe Work Australia Bill are an opportunistic effort to prevent the harmonisation of national OH&S legislation. To this end, the opposition should not continue to insist on their own occupational health and safety laws. The opposition should see the writing on the wall and agree that we should have, once and for all, uniform occupational health and safety laws. I will not continue to argue this. The opposition seem wedded to the position of undermining harmonisation across OH&S laws.