Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

There are still some issues at large in relation to this amendment. The first one, of course, is why the transport industry was not consulted but the Transport Workers Union was. The other issue is why this was not part of the original framework. The reason it was not part of the original framework, I suggest to the minister, is that under award modernisation we were going to have a framework that covered all awards but with this amendment we are carving out certain elements peculiar to the transport industry to give a huge leg-up to the Transport Workers Union in the terms described by Senator Williams before the dinner adjournment.

In this, we understand that safety is going to become an issue in the award. Occupational health and safety should be, I submit, a separate regime and not part of the award system. Once you allow it in for the trucking sector, guess who will be next? Why not, once the principle has been established, the CFMEU and the construction sector or the MUA in stevedoring? This was all about award modernisation—getting it all on the same footing—to ensure that we had a simple system, but here we are, sneaking in not only a special deal for transport but also a new safety principle. It is vitally important, do not get me wrong, but that is dealt with under an occupational health and safety regime, not through industrial awards. As soon as we open that gate again, the Transport Workers Union will be used as the precedent and you will see Kevin Reynolds, the MUA and all the others coming in behind, saying, ‘The precedent’s been set; let’s go for it, boys.’

I very seriously put to the Senate that government amendment (2) needs to be opposed for those reasons. I also think the Senate is entitled to an undertaking from the government—and they cannot give this undertaking—that the New South Wales system will not be transported into the national system and all around the country. Senator Williams outlined some of the corruption—I will use the word—