Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, to Senator Colbeck: I was moving motions like this in the Tasmanian parliament to protect and give a fair go to contractors long before he ever thought of entering politics, particularly during the resource security episode where his party and the Labor Party in Tasmania gave security of access to the Tasmanian forests—to Gunns effectively; that is where it ended up. But they refused to give an equivalent security to people working for Gunns on contracts, which means they are dismissible at any time and can go to the wall. I am very grateful to the member for Bass in the Tasmanian House of Assembly, Kim Booth, the Greens member, for the supporting letters which have come from the contractors themselves asking for this sort of assistance. Gunns is a multibillion dollar company. Forestry Tasmania has a multibillion dollar resource. The Labor and Liberal parties always use the cry for jobs but refuse this sort of effort to protect those jobs when people are in hard times.

Is it not reasonable that Gunns and Forestry Tasmania should be asked to put a 1c or 2c levy on the royalties they pay to ensure that these Tasmanian citizens who have invested so much in their interest are not simply thrown to the wolves, to use Senator Colbeck’s terminology? When it comes to the crunch, Labor and Liberal in this place as well as in the Tasmanian parliament have seriously abandoned these workers. The Greens have no trouble at all in saying: ‘Fair go. Give these contractors a fair go.’ This is a dinkum motion to give the contractors a fair go. It is up to Labor and Liberal to support this motion instead of dumping these workers. Real action is being proposed by the Greens.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Bob Brown’s) be agreed to.