Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the deputy chairman of the committee that investigated this issue—the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Committee—I wish to register in the strongest possible terms my absolute disgust at the attempt by the government and the Greens to try and pervert what I would call the course of justice in relation to this late amendment. It has been said that we wanted a range of people to appear before that committee and, of course, we were denied access to it. We went through this whole process in the best of good faith. To see now that this has appeared minutes before midnight and to see that it has been made public in a media release from a House of Representatives member, being a Greens member, is a travesty and something that this chamber should not accept.

It was then Minister Gillard, now the Prime Minister, who made these statements to the National Press Club:

Anybody who breaches the law should feel the full force of the law.

She went on to say, and what empty words they were, as we know now as a result of her performance with the carbon tax:

… there should be absolutely vigorous, hard-edged compliance and no tolerance at all for unlawfulness. … each and every breach of the law is wrong and each and every breach of the law should be acted upon.

What this amendment does is go right to the core of those comments that Ms Gillard made. It emphasises again her absolute emptiness when it comes to any attempt with regard to justice and honesty and fairness in this process.

Yesterday I asked the minister with responsibility, Senator Arbib, if he could respond and, of course, in his final days in this place he has lost interest so therefore he was not only not across the issue but was not able to answer my question. But he made one allegation to me, and that is that my interests are with workers and small businesses and contractors. If he wants to apply that to me, I will accept that with pride, because what this committee tried to do was to absolutely protect the interests of workers, small businesses and contractors—and this amendment goes completely to the heart of those three particular groups. All Senator Arbib could do was bleat about a tough cop on the beat. If indeed the government knew that this amendment was coming on why was it not presented for the committee to debate? I am bitterly disappointed that my Senate colleague and chairman of this committee did not see fit to come into this place and to actually defend it. Why? Because I believe he would be as embarrassed as I, as the deputy chairman, am angry to have been dealt with in such a tawdry fashion.

So what are we going to have now if this is not going to be the subject of a reference back to our committee? What we are clearly going to have is pay-off money. We are going to see pay-off money at every level and it may well apply on the union side and it may well apply on the employer side. It does not matter what side it applies on. The fact of the matter is that this amendment, if passed, will remove the right of the police and other law enforcement agents to actually prosecute the case. We could think of many instances—as Senator Abetz has said, in a road accident or in a drug related situation—in which somebody is apprehended, they go to the other side, they put pressure on them and they may or may not offer them money in return for the case being dropped. Well, isn't that wonderful, given the level to which we have descended in this country where you can have a bit of a backroom deal between two parties, whether it is fair or whether it is not fair, and this Senate of the Australian parliament is actually going to endorse this! The Senate is going to improve it! The Senate is going to deny the police and other parties the right to actually investigate aberrant and illegal behaviour be it of employers, unions, contractors or whomever. And who are the losers in this? The ones that I spoke to Senator Arbib about yesterday. It will be workers on sites, it will be employees, it will be small contractors. They are the ones who will be the losers and they will look to this chamber and say, 'A pox on you for your failure to protect us.' This must go back to a reference to the committee. (Time expired)