Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I have read the ABCC bill from cover to cover, including the building code, and it does nothing that Senator Cameron alleges. The CFMEU is supposedly bargaining for its members, yet it funded GetUp! to the tune of $1.2 million in 2010. And what I am going to discuss next is a very sad thing, and that is black lung. Black lung is a crippling disease in the coal industry, and we thought it was ended thanks to legislation, thanks to modern equipment and thanks to modern high-velocity ventilation. But in Queensland recently we have seen black lung recur. The CFMEU controls four of the levels of responsibility for preventing black lung, including two levels that are paid for by the industry and for which the CFMEU are responsible. That is an indictment of the CFMEU's attitude towards safety.

We see the CFMEU allied with activists and with GetUp!—who are also connected with American billionaires—funding the destruction, and they admit this, of this country's coal industry. And they are closely allied with President Obama and senior people from Hillary Clinton's campaign. This is indeed payback, as Senator Cameron said, for the people in Australia, for the honest union members, against the large building companies and the CFMEU cronies.

Senator Cameron, in my view, is of the old days, when might was right, when safety was seen as a cost. And then it was a constant battle, because the old view was that safety cost money, and that is no longer appropriate. Senator Cameron still sees safety as an alternative to productivity. It is not, and I will get on to the solution in a minute. In the old days, quality was seen as cost. It is not a cost, but that is what it was seen as. So, companies, managers, people throughout the country and people throughout the world thought that higher quality meant higher cost. That has also been tipped away. The environment was seen as a cost, and the Greens still see it as a cost—to the detriment of our civilisation. But times have changed. Safety now is seen to improve productivity. That is why safety makes commercial sense. When people focus properly on safety they improve the work processes, the work environment, and that leads to fewer injuries, fewer near misses and less waste of materials. Safety improves productivity.

This bill is about putting responsibility back on the employers in this industry, and that will improve safety, as it did under the old ABCC. Quality improves productivity. Maybe people in this chamber are not aware of what the Japanese did. The Japanese focused on quality and dramatically improved productivity, and that has given us the modern miracle of modern manufacturing, which reduces costs. The same miracle will start to apply much more rapidly in the construction sector once management is allowed to behave properly and once the senior management of major companies are required to manage properly. We now see that the environment improves productivity, because the environment is despoiled by pollutants. Pollutants are waste, and when we reduce waste we improve the environment, we improve costs. The Greens, though, seem to think that civilisation and the environment are mutually exclusive, whereas they are mutually beneficial.

I have been made aware of some hours of work—or maybe they are hours of recreation—on the Karara worksite under a greenfields agreement. A typical day during a negotiation—which the taxpayers are paying for—is a 6.30 start; from 6.30 to seven o'clock, workers arrive and attend prework meetings with the relevant foremen. Sounds good. From 7.30 to 9.30 there is a union communication meeting. But wait for it: that is the first communication meeting that they are entitled to. From 9.30 to 10.00 is a scheduled smoko break. It must have been a pretty hectic meeting! And then from 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock there is 'limited work'. From 11 o'clock to one o'clock is—wait for it—the second union communication meeting. The union is not very good at communication, I guess! From one o'clock to 1.30—of course, after a tiring morning—it is necessary for a lunch break, and then from 1.30 to 2.30 there is another hour of 'limited work', and then from 2.30 to three o'clock, knock-off, with a staggered finishing time between 2.30 and 3 pm. So, two hours of work—sorry: two hours of 'limited work'—in an eight-hour day; amazing.

Who is paying for this? We are—the taxpayers. The taxpayers are paying for this. Senator Cameron does not seem to understand economics. He feigned ignorance that the building construction industry does not affect house prices. When the price of apartments rises, the price of houses rises. It is that simple: supply and demand. Everyone knows that—well, I would have thought everyone knows that. Some building workers, contrary to what Senator Cameron said, actually go out to work every day, but they cannot get work. They cannot get work because they are black banned, and sometimes they are threatened and are under intimidation. And it is not only them but also their families and their work mates. Dyson Heydon and many judges have confirmed that. Around 100 CFMEU officials are before the courts—and Senator Cameron raises accountability. That is the core of this bill. But how can we have accountability when workers, when foremen, when shareholders, when owners of buildings have to go through the court system to get it? It is not right. This bill and the building code in particular pushes accountability back to where it belongs—to the head of the senior companies. This bill is about freedom, accountability, safety and workers' rights, and improving every one of them.

Senator Rhiannon talks about protecting the CFMEU. Why? It is because it is a major source of Greens' funds. Another point I want to address is the use of labels by members of the ALP and members of the Greens in this Senate. When I hear someone being labelled as arrogant, as a liar et cetera then, to me, it means that the person using the label does not have the evidence. That, again, is an old, outdated tactic and displays behaviours that are no longer productive. In fact, the old unions, which Senator Cameron seems to exemplify, stifled workers, disconnected workers and stifled apprentices. When people are not free to use their talents through demarcation, it has a very crippling effect on work pride and work satisfaction.

I am of the understanding that when Bill Shorten was minister for employment the number of 457 visas increased dramatically. I am also of the understanding that the board members of GetUp! included Bill Shorten, an ally of the CFMEU. I am also of the understanding that under the previous Labor government Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's used 457 visas. I may be wrong about that, but that is what I have heard.