Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill 2013 [No. 2] and Building and Construction Industry (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013 [No. 2]. These bills seek to take us back to the dark old days of the Work Choices era in an attempt to bring the Australian Building and Construction Commission, ABCC, back from the dead. Put simply, this is a plan to restore a failed body that was built on flawed premises in order to demonise construction industry workers and those who represent them.

Under this legislation the ABCC will have extreme and unnecessary powers, powers that would fundamentally compromise basic civil liberties. ABCC mark 2 could compel ordinary workers to attend secret meetings. Not only that, they could be threatened with imprisonment in order to get information. They would have no access to legal representation and no right to remain silent. These are people who have not committed a crime, but they could be treated like criminals. Let us be clear: there is no other worker in the federal system who has this sort of draconian regime imposed upon them, and it is fundamentally undemocratic to impose this on workers within the building and construction industry.

The real irony of the bill before us, today, is that the government does not want it to pass. Despite all the huffing and puffing, despite all the hyperventilating about corruption—which, incidentally, this bill is not designed to address—despite the campaign of misinformation being waged by those opposite, this bill is merely a strategic means of ending this 44th Parliament in a double dissolution. Whilst these bills fit neatly with the Liberals' ongoing attacks on workers and the organisations that represent them, what those opposite truly want is to justify a mad dash to a double dissolution that would silence dissent by clearing out the crossbench.

If those opposite truly cared about getting the ABCC passed they could have brought it back for a vote at any time in the past eight months, without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars—perhaps even millions—to recall parliament. But this has not happened. In fact, since the bill was last defeated in this place the government has not sought to negotiate at all with the opposition or the crossbench about potential amendments. Of course, there is no other reason than that those opposite want to cut and run to a double dissolution. That is because it is becoming patently clear to the Australian people that they have been sold a dud.

The exuberance and relief that Australians felt when Mr Abbott was removed from the top job is rapidly being displaced by disappointment, verging on despair, by the man who took over. In Mr Turnbull, Australians thought they were getting a Prime Minister who would turn his back on the toxic, vicious policies of his predecessor and truly govern in the interests of all Australians. Instead, they got Mr Abbott in a top hat. Australians thought they were getting a Prime Minister who understood the importance of developing an innovative country that could take a leading role in the global digital economy. Instead, they got a man who continued to back-in last century's broadband network and maintain millions of dollars in cuts to vital research.

They thought they were getting a man who believed in better wages for low- and middle-income Australians. Instead, they got a man who continued the savage Abbott era attacks on workers and the organisations that help them get a better deal. They also thought they were getting a man who understood the importance of fairness, a man who recognised that growing inequality is not just a problem for those who are losing out but one for the entire nation. Instead, they got a man who continued to go after low- and middle-income Australians while backing-in 'one per centers' who laid claim to an ever-increasing portion of the national wealth.

What we have in Mr Turnbull is a man who refuses to do anything meaningful about massive tax avoidance by extremely wealthy companies and individuals—but he tried to hike the regressive GST, which would hit low-income Australians the hardest.

Of course this growing realisation in the electorate is starting to show up in the polls as the Prime Minister's carefully constructed but totally fictitious mask of a moderate man is falling off, policy by policy. The Liberals know that they have a limited window of time before the game is well and truly up, so they want to get an election as soon as they can.

This ABCC double-D scramble also serves another purpose: as a smokescreen to distract voters from the Liberals' shameful performance in government and their complete and utter lack of policy direction. The reality is that most Australians neither know nor care about the ABCC. In the past 2½ years I have received tens of thousand of pieces of correspondence calling for a change on many hundreds of federal issues, but in all this time I have not received a single one from a constituent calling for the reinstatement of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Not one. I expect that the vast majority of senators and members in this place would have a very similar experience. It makes the Prime Minister's decision to cut and run to an extraordinary double dissolution election, on the basis of this legislation alone, as transparent as it is self interested. By hyperventilating about unions and going after construction workers they are hoping to avoid tricky national conversations about those issues that affect the majority of Australians.

This extraordinary farce of proroguing the parliament demonstrates further how unwilling the Prime Minister is to fight an election on the things that really matter to Australians. He does not want to talk about the Liberals' wish to slash penalty rates and conditions for Australian workers, or their myriad attempts to hand over Australian jobs to foreign workers. He does not want Aussies reminded that he is doing nothing to reduce the $10 billion hit the budget takes each year from tax breaks for capital gains and negative gearing—more than we spend on child care or higher education. He does not want the conversation to turn to the Liberals' complete lack of action on billions of dollars' worth of superannuation tax breaks that are largely used by the wealthy to reduce their tax bill. He does not want to talk about the $80 billion cuts he is levying on schools and hospitals or the Liberals' attacks on pensions, family support, TAFE, university fees and universal health care. He does not want us to think any further about the fact that only a few weeks ago he wanted to dump funding for public schools entirely. He does not want Australians to be reminded of the fact that the Liberals are cutting $650 million from pathology and diagnostic imaging—the very services that saves lives by identifying serious health problems so that they can be addressed and treated early. He does not want the national conversation to turn to the fact that those opposite have no plans, no policies and no vision for the economic future of the country, especially when contrasted with Labor, which has already released more than 70 fully funded policies which will deliver $70 billion in savings. He does not want to talk about marriage equality or climate action, having already made a deal with the Liberal hard right that nothing of substance will change. He would rather not get into tricky conversations about why he is marching forward with Mr Tony Abbott's plebiscite on marriage equality, which has been estimated to cost the country around half a billion dollars, rather than making the parliament do its job. He does not want to stand on his record of trashing Labor's first-class, fibre-to-the-premises NBN, which Australia will need to compete for business and investment in the global digital economy. He also does not want to admit that the Liberals have no plan for the economy after doubling the deficit, blowing out the budget and hiking taxes.

Just for the record, these are not just Labor lines—they are an undeniable reality. Figures from the Australian Office of Financial Management reveal that the two greatest annual increases in debt from the past 10 years have been under this Liberal government. In fact they added a whopping $111.36 billion in just two years. Things have been even worse for the deficit, which has doubled under the Abbott-Turnbull government. Let us not forget that this so-called party of lower taxes has actually hiked taxes to levels not seen since the tax-happy Howard government. In fact, the national tax take has been up every year under this government, and total tax as a proportion of the economy is higher than it ever was under the former Labor government.

Six months ago Mr Turnbull promised economic leadership and a mature debate on reform. Since then we have seen dysfunction, division and baseless scare campaigns, but no plan for economic reform. It seems that Mr Turnbull, lacking courage to make hard decisions, now has only one thing on his once overflowing table: tax cuts for the rich, despite the revelation that one in three of Australia's largest private companies did not pay tax last financial year. Wealthy Australians earning more than $180,000 a year look set to get an extra two per cent tax cut that will see the very Prime Minister here take home an extra $6,500 a year. Meanwhile, a couple with two kids on a single income of $65,000 will be $2,141 worse off. How does that add up to fairness?

In recent weeks we have seen breathtaking revelations of the global structures that are set up to allow very rich individuals and companies to hide their wealth and avoid paying tax. While ordinary Australians are required to pay their fair share of taxes, this government refuses to address the scandalous opt-out options that are available to the extremely wealthy. While it is difficult to get an estimate of how much tax avoidance is costing the country, there is little doubt that it stretches out to many billions of dollars each year. If even 10 per cent of corporate income tax were being lost to aggressive minimisation structures, Australia could be losing as much as $26 billion over four years. The fact that around a third of the largest companies operating in Australia actually pay no tax—none at all—suggests that the foregone revenue could be much, much higher.

When companies fail to pay their fair share of tax, revenue must be found elsewhere from other businesses or everyday Australian workers. But the Liberals have not just failed to act on this colossal issue; they have actually contributed to the problem. In fact this government has gutted the Australian Taxation Office by sacking more than 4,000 ATO workers—the very people that we need to investigate tax avoidance and return that money to the budget. Not only that—those opposite also fought tooth and nail to tear down Labor's reforms that would allow Australians to learn how much more tax our wealthiest private companies are paying.

But it is not only tax avoidance that this government is backing in over the national interest. It has also refused to do anything about the ongoing and systematic bad behaviour of our banks. In fact, the Prime Minister himself even admitted very recently that there is a serious issue. But do you know what he did then? Nothing. The fact is that the confidence and trust in the financial services industry has taken a huge hit over recent years. We have seen older Australians have their retirement savings gutted. We have seen families rorted out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. We have seen life insurance policy holders denied justice. We have seen very serious suggestions of rate fixing, a culture agreed, abrogation of responsibility and predatory behaviour. There are literally tens of thousands of victims—quite possibly many more. Australians and investors need to have confidence in their banks and financial institutions if they are to continue to prosper. But if we are to achieve this, we need to uncover and deal with unethical behaviour that compromises this confidence.

Australia has one of the strongest banking systems in the world, and Labor wants to make it even stronger. This is why Labor has promised that a Shorten Labor government would hold a royal commission into the decisions and behaviours of the banks and other financial institutions. Since this important move was announced, we have seen those opposite tie themselves in knots trying to justify their inaction and do everything they can to hold off scrutiny into the banks. They have even tried to argue that by making the banks more accountable and more ethical we are somehow compromising their business model. Not only are they trying to block legitimate investigation but the Abbott-Turnbull government actually cut $120 million from the corporate regulator, ASIC, all but ensuring that it would not have the resources to do its job.

Australians are not stupid. They can see what is going on. They are thoroughly sick of the Liberals putting vested interests ahead of what is good for the country. Of course, the relentless attack on unions, like the bill before us today, is yet further evidence of the Liberals kowtowing to their big business masters. Mr Turnbull and his friends in the government know very well that if they can weaken unions then they can keep the money flowing to the top end of town. When we have a diminished union movement, this is exactly what has happened. Let us be clear: this is not just speculation on my behalf. No—it is backed up by research at the International Monetary Fund, which found a strong link between declining union membership, ballooning CEO wages and increasing inequality. Not only that but the same research shows that income concentration at the top can, 'Reduce a population’s welfare if it allows top earners to manipulate the economic and political system in their favour.' The IMF is not a body known for its left-wing tendencies. This is not about ideology; this is about the facts.

I would now like to return to the specifics of the bill, but would I like to start by addressing a few myths that those opposite have been shopping around to anyone who will listen. Firstly, the bill is not about clearing up corruption, despite what the Prime Minister wants us to believe. In his letter to the Governor-General advising him to prorogue the parliament, Mr Turnbull stated:

The Government regards this legislation as of great importance for … taking strong measures to deal with widespread and systematic criminality in the building and construction industry.

But this lie has been revealed for what it is—ironically by the Chief Executive Officer of Master Builders Australia, Wilhelm Harnisch. When asked about this in a recent radio interview, Mr Harnisch directly contradicted the Prime Minister when he said:

So those people who are saying that this about dealing with criminality and corruption are missing the point.

He went on to say:

… I mean the matter of criminality and fraud are totally separate from the ABCC and there are agencies that deal with criminality.

Mr Harnisch is absolutely correct. The ABCC has no power to investigate breaches of criminal law or corruption. The Fair Work Building & Construction agency already has significant powers to respond appropriately to any unlawful behaviour in the industry—a fact that this bill wilfully ignores. There is no systematic gap within the current system that a resurrected ABCC would fill. In fact, the Fair Work Building & Construction agency is working more effectively than the ABCC ever did in its day.

The second piece of misinformation being peddled by those opposite about this bill is that restoring the draconian ABCC would improve productivity in the construction industry. Many of those opposite have tried to claim that this previous incarnation of the ABCC did exactly this. Again, this is totally untrue and completely at odds with the official data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The data tell us that there has been a continuous improvement in productivity in the industry since records began in the late 1980s. In fact, the rate of improvement in the seven years before the ABCC was introduced was better than in the seven years that the ABCC was in place, and it has continued to improve since the ABCC was abolished.

Another blatant misrepresentation those opposite have been trying about this bill is that it is somehow a recommendation of the tainted royal commission into trade unions. the ABCC bill and the registered organisations bill precede the findings of the politically partisan royal commission. In fact, both bills were introduced before the royal commission began and were defeated before its conclusion. The government has taken no steps to implement the recommendations of its $80 million taxpayer-funded royal commission. In contrast, Labor has announced a package of governance changes aimed at deterring and detecting corruption in unions, including doubling the maximum penalties for all criminal offences under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act. Labor will not shy away from cracking down on criminal behaviour, whether by employers, employees or union representatives. But, similarly, we will not stand idly by while millions of dollars are being sucked out of vital services and nothing is being done to address the massive tax breaks that are being given to the wealthiest companies and individuals.

The difference between Labor and Liberal at the upcoming election could not clearer. While the Liberals continue to back the big end of town and to attack the organisations that fight to secure a better deal for workers, Labor has a plan to govern for all Australians. We will not be cowed into not addressing the issues that really matter to those people in our community who are doing it tough at the moment—and who will continue to do it tough if this government continues to be the government.