Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the legislation to bring forward the Australian Building and Construction Commission. The Australian Greens stand strongly against the reintroduction of the ABCC. The ABCC is an attack on the rights of workers—their civil rights and their right to have a safe workplace. In standing up to oppose this legislation today, I am standing up for the rights of more than a million Australians at work. What we are presented with here in this legislation by the Liberal government is a choice that goes to the very heart of our what our vision is for Australian workplaces. It is a choice that fits very clearly with this government's agenda of being on the side of big money and big business and working against the interests of ordinary hardworking Australians. It is a return to an agenda that unites the Liberal Party, where they cannot be united on other things; it unites them in an agenda of union bashing and attacking the rights of ordinary workers in their workplaces.

In particular, this legislation presents us with a choice: to give people a balance between their work and the rest of their lives or to take that balance away. It presents us with a choice for people to be able to take off important public holidays such as Christmas or Easter or to remove those protections as this government seems intent to do. It presents us with a choice between giving young people a start as apprentices or reducing these opportunities. It presents as with a choice between making sure older Australians are not discriminated against in their workplace or not. And it presents us with a choice between making sure Australians feel safe and are safe at work or not.

These things are under attack in this legislation—including in the Building Code, which is part of this legislation. For example, what is at risk in the current Electrical Trades Union construction agreement? Seventy six clauses of that agreement could be prohibited—and this is just one example of the targeted industries. We have a choice in this place, but if the government gets its way on these provisions in the Building Code, Australians who rely on these safeguards for their pay and conditions will not have a choice.

The government is very open about this being an attack on the CFMEU but coy about the broader intentions of what they are trying to achieve by reintroducing the Australian Building and Construction Commission—a broader anti-union attack, a broader attack on the unions. The Building Code provision will enable the federal government to prevent local agreements having clauses for a range of matters, including guarantees on the number of apprentices. The government wants to wage war on all unions—the organisations that protect people's rights at work.

The Building Code will apply not just to employers tendering for government construction projects; it will apply to all employees working for private sector entities tendering for government work; it will apply to all entities that provide transport or prefabrication manufacturing to government jobs; and it will apply to other entities, including contracting or transport suppliers. When things go wrong in these workplaces, it is the unions that are stepping up and looking after the affected workers and their families. This bill will give people in the construction industry fewer rights—just because of the industry that they work in. It will give them fewer rights at work than accused criminals and even accused terrorists—in the form of new secret police who will have the right to take workers off the site and pull them in for questioning. The workers will not have the right to silence; they will not be able to talk to others about the fact that they are being investigated.

We may have changed Prime Minister's last year, but the government has not changed its spots. This bill is taking us back to the worst of the Abbott years. You can just imagine some in the coalition party room lighting up their cigars and concocting some good old-fashioned union bashing. This is the Prime Minister's attempt to trigger class warfare. The government is still seeking to divide rather than to unite. It is still governing for the big end of town—still governing for big money and for big business—while targeting those who can afford it least. Rather than governing for all Australians, it is still playing these political games, including bringing us all back here for three weeks at the cost of millions of dollars—millions of our precious taxpayers' dollars—to try and force the same old attacks on unions through the parliament. And you wonder why people are sick of politicians. Let us be clear: this is purely a political attack by this government.

If the government was serious about weeding out corruption, it would introduce a federal independent commission against corruption. We will be moving an amendment to this legislation for that to occur. Our second reading amendment will be that the bill be withdrawn and redrafted to provide for the establishment of a broad-based, anti-corruption watchdog—because, in its current form, the bill is an attack on workers and their unions and is not about addressing corruption at all. We have seen the consequences of such a body in the New South Wales parliament, where giving ICAC teeth came back to bite the Liberal Party. But at this time, amid a huge tax avoidance scandal and after helicopter trips and dodgy donations, the coalition lacks the courage to introduce an anti-corruption body at the federal level. This lack of courage has been made even clearer by the government refusing to support the Greens' call for a royal commission into the big banks and the financial sector—a sector where we have heard, time and again, of alleged misconduct; white-collar crime which has affected the lives of tens of thousands of victims. If the government was serious about tackling corruption and wrongdoing it would get behind the Greens' call to set up a royal commission.

The Greens are similarly committed to our vision for a national integrity commission. This would have three arms. We would have a national integrity commissioner who would be responsible for the investigation and prevention of misconduct and corruption in all Commonwealth departments and agencies, and among federal parliamentarians and their staff. Secondly, it would have a watchdog to ensure that law enforcement has some independent oversight—so it would be responsible for the investigation and prevention of corruption in the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission. Finally, it would have an independent parliamentary adviser who would provide independent advice to ministers and parliamentarians on conduct, on ethical matters, and on the appropriate use of their parliamentary entitlements.

These are the sorts of broad-based, fundamental measures that we need to see in place to be tackling issues of corruption across Australian society. But, instead of such a broad-based body, the ABCC is aimed squarely at the Liberal Party's political rivals and, like any politically motivated attempt to attack your enemies, the public sees through the facade—just like they saw through the farcical and secretive royal commission into trade unions. And it is destined to fail. Indeed, it has failed before—the Liberals' first go at the ABCC failed. It failed to be an independent regulator committed to the best interests of the industry, the conditions of people at work and the needs of legitimate employers. The first go at the ABCC was unwilling or unable to address industry employers engaging in illegal activities, including the widespread use of misleading contracts. Construction companies signing up workers as independent contractors instead of hiring them as employees remains a serious issue that reduces industry standards. For employees, it means they lose out on basic work and safety rights.

The construction industry is one of this country's top four most dangerous industries, yet the old ABCC never took an employer to court over breaches of occupational health and safety laws, and the number of deaths in the construction industry increased during the period that the ABCC was in operation. In 2004, the number of deaths was 3.14 per 100,000 workers. In 2007, it stood at 4.8, and in 2008 it was 4.27 per 100,000 workers. Deaths in the construction industry are an appalling thing for us to have to be living with here in our Australian workplaces. We need to have measures in place that truly address the issue of improving safety at work. The ABCC in its previous incarnation was reducing safety at work. Every death on a construction site—any death at work—is something to be fought hard against. By reintroducing the ABCC, it is certain that safety levels would decline, and it is certain that deaths would increase. And yet, as part of this, the coercive powers of the ABCC would subject construction industry workers to secret interrogations and force them to answer questions under oath, resulting in construction workers having fewer rights than other workers, and lessening their ability to stand up for their rights at work and to stand up for the right to a safe workplace.

The attempt to go back to the future with another ABCC is indicative of the failure of Prime Minister Turnbull to turn the government around after the regressive leadership of Tony Abbott. We were promised that the rise of Mr Turnbull to the position of Prime Minister heralded a new era, and that we would no longer have Tony Abbott's three-word slogans. But just now we have heard the government's agenda, spouting the lines of the Treasurer about jobs and growth. But what is the value of jobs if people do not feel safe in their workplace? What cost is the government willing to pay for growth, if mums and dads do not have the time to spend Christmas with their children? Or worse, what if they are not around to see their children grow up, because of workplace accidents? The Greens believe a person should not have fewer rights than an accused criminal simply because they work in the building industry. People should not fear being hauled into secret interrogations and inquisitions, and being forced to name names under threat of imprisonment. We do not want or need McCarthyism in the building industry.

The Greens and the Australian people see this for what it really is: an attack on people's rights at work and a distraction from dealing with the very real issues of corruption and wrongdoing that span every industry. We will always stand up for people's rights at work, and we urge all senators to reject this legislation and not support this bill. In doing so, I will also move the second reading amendment standing in my name.

(Quorum formed)