Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I will make it very short. That the panel of experts report is the most favourable we have had in a while does not mean much given Australia’s record. That it is better than some of the others does not mean that the government are meeting their requirements or that it should not get rid of the ABCC. The government made a very clear promise they would abolish the ABCC by January this year. They have not done it. They have not met their promise. The current bill does not meet their promise—that is, to abolish the ABCC. It keeps most of the punitive approach of the ABCC legislation in, for a start, coercive powers. For the government to stand behind a report that is slightly better, which says they have done slightly better than they have in the past, means nothing. They have not met their promise to abolish the ABCC. That is a very clear breach of that promise.

Question put:

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