Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I want to go to a number of the issues that were raised by Senator Rhiannon in relation to the ABCC. We agree that the Australian Building and Construction Commission was set up as a union-busting operation. There is no doubt about that. That is what it is all about. Under its current name, Fair Work Building and Construction, it is headed up by a guy called Nigel Hadgkiss, who is the most incompetent public servant I have ever seen at estimates. He does not even know how, basically, the operation works. His job is to terrorise workers and to terrorise employers so that there is little, if any, engagement with the CFMEU on building sites. Originally it started with Mr John Lloyd, who is now the Public Service Commissioner. He has developed this government approach on bargaining in the public sector and has left the public sector now for two years in absolute chaos, with industrial disputes ready to break out at nearly every other month in the public sector, because of the attempt by the government and Mr Lloyd to cut wages and conditions of public servants. That is only the start. That is what is going to be happen everywhere else in the country if this government is re-elected.

That is why we will do anything we possibly can to ensure that they are not elected. I agree with Senator Dastyari. We are not afraid of an election. If an election comes, we will go out and fight it. We will fight the coalition. We will not be doing any deals with the coalition to fight anyone else. We will fight the coalition. We will not be doing any secret deals that would try and disadvantage anyone here. We will just have the fight about the issues, and the issues are pretty clear. If we end up with this government in power again, it is going to be bad for the economy, bad for society and bad for working families and the working class in this country. There is no doubt about that.

With the ABCC, when Labor got in, we had a look at these issues in the industry, we consulted widely about the issues in the industry and we decided that we would have what was called Fair Work Building and Construction. We do not want Fair Work Building and Construction to end up being the ABCC because of incompetent negotiations by the Greens and their leader Senator Di Natale in relation to the timing of a double dissolution. The amendment that we have before this place now clearly gives the opportunity for the Greens to ensure that there is no double dissolution this year and that we can get on with exposing the big problems in this coalition—expose the chaos in the coalition, the divisions in the coalition, and the lack of concern for workers, jobs and the people that are down and out and need a hand from government. There is a complete lack of concern from this mob over there.

The best thing that happened when Fair Work Building and Construction was established was that John Lloyd and Nigel Hadgkiss, the opposition's union busters, the opposition's enforcers in the building and construction industry, took off and were warehoused with the IPA or elsewhere. We ended up with a Fair Work Building and Construction that had checks and balances on its operations. It also had a wide brief to look after workers not just the policies—because that is exactly what this Fair Work Building and Construction does under the coalition.

We do not want a double dissolution that could result in this Fair Work Building and Construction getting back in because of some secret deals with the Greens and the coalition about preferences—a secret deal with Mr Kroger in Victoria for deals around the country to try to disadvantage the Labor Party. We had a Fair Work Building and Construction operation that had that wide brief, looked at issues such as phoenixing in the industry, exploitation of 457 workers and had an interest in health and safety issues in the industry. It was not liked by the union movement but certainly, I think, the union movement understood that it was not the type of beast that has been established by the coalition, which was simply about trying to destroy effective trade unionism and effective wages and conditions in the building and construction industry.

The Fair Work Building and Construction has come into place again with Mr Nigel Hadgkiss as its leader, and we have seen a massive amount of politically-timed claims against the CFMEU predominantly; a number of civil actions being taken in courts against the CFMEU designed for the maximum political effect—not in terms of what the issues are. Mr Hadgkiss is doing the bidding of the coalition day-in day-out on these issues.

I had an opportunity this week to meet with the relatives of Mr Gerry Bradley. Mr Bradley was a young Irishman and he was killed on a Jackson job in Western Australia with another young Irish backpacker, Joe McDermott. These were young men with their whole life ahead of them and it was absolutely gut-wrenching to have Gerry Bradley's father and his uncle and his girlfriend in my office telling me about the problems on these Jackson sites, where these two young men were killed. There were no smoko huts. There was nowhere they could have morning tea. So they were sitting outside in an area where cranes were lifting concrete slabs, close by and over their heads. The concrete slabs slipped and these two young men were crushed to death. One of them was from Omagh and the other was from Colerain.

The families concern is that when they spoke to WorkSafe Western Australia they were told it could be three years before any outcome is finalised in terms of the investigations into their deaths. They are distraught about how that could take so long. They were also distraught about the lack of conditions on those jobs. This was a site that Fair Work Building and Construction, under its chief executive Nigel Hadgkiss, visited on a regular basis. And part of the visits, we are told, was to stop the CFMEU coming on site to investigate health and safety problems. It is not me that is making those allegations, it is the family of two dead workers. They were appalled that in a country like Australia their sons, their nephews, their boyfriends, having only been in the country for a number of weeks, ended up leaving the country in coffins. And on the day these two workers were killed another worker was killed on a construction site at Kwinana in Western Australia.

We hear all the set-up questions in question time and during estimates about the CFMEU and their behaviour. But we never hear this government talk about the workplace deaths in the building and construction industry—an average of 36 fatalities every year. People are saying that Fair Work Building and Construction, under Nigel Hadgkiss, is contributing to poor safety and a lack of proper safety advice for people on the jobs. I am told that some companies are saying to the union to come on site quietly because they do not want a visit from Fair Work Building and Construction. Fair Work Building and Construction has annual increases in its expenditure year on year—it has moved from $35 million a year to $48 million a year. They are actually looking after wages and conditions for the Fair Work Ombudsman, which is having its budget cut. That is the position under this coalition—an operation which is basically a union-busting operation and, in my view, contributes to injury and death on the building and construction sites in this country. That is a claim that is being made to me in my office—that this organisation is so vicious in its approach to employers and employees that they are absolutely terrified to deal with safety issues on jobs around this country. It is an absolute disgrace.

Jaxon, the company in Western Australia where these two young workers were killed, had 15 visits from Fair Work Building and Construction. Many of those visits, I am told, were to advise the employer not to let the CFMEU on site on any safety issue and to enforce the companies ringing them up to get CFMEU officials off the site. Workers are being intimidated. Companies are being intimidated. Workers are being seriously injured. Workers are being killed. Fair Work Building and Construction, in the view of the people who are putting this to me, are part of the problem, not the solution.

The amendment that we are putting up would prevent the government from relying on the new voting system in a double dissolution election. It would ensure that we would have a better opportunity to ensure that Nigel Hadgkiss does not end up heading up the ABCC and taking further action against decent workers in this country. This is an amendment the Greens should support. If they have any principles left, they should support this amendment to ensure that this double dissolution cannot go ahead. It is a simple proposition. Just say you will support the amendment we have put up. There will not be a double dissolution.

This government would end up being in a position where it will look weaker and weaker and more and more chaotic as the days go on, with a Prime Minister who cannot enforce any cohesion within the coalition. It certainly would be better. Senator Rhiannon, you should reconsider. Think about the trade union movement, think about workers that are being killed and maimed, and support this amendment. (Time expired)