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

It is rare that I get to insult two people at once with just one comment, but there you go! I have just done it.

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Or complimented them, Senator Roberts. Please continue.

Small businesses are a major loser here. I have honestly seen large muscly men afraid of nothing except the CFMEU. Because they have been afraid, they have told us that they cannot tell their stories without confidentiality and that we cannot identify them, their companies, their employees or their families, because they are afraid for their employees and the families of their employees. This is Australia in 2016—almost 2017—and we have decent people, hardworking people and honest people living in fear. Surely, that is enough to get support for initiatives like this.

Then we have taxpayers—our bosses; the people we serve—paying 30 per cent above what they should for hospitals, for schools, for roads and for other infrastructure. That means that when we pay for three hospitals right now we could be getting a fourth for nothing; we could be getting a fourth road for nothing; we could be getting a fourth school for nothing. That is exactly why this bill has to be passed: we need to suppress the lawless behaviour on construction sites. That lawlessness goes to senior levels of major companies. Remember that that is the key to this bill. The key to this bill is breaking the backs of the cartels that are run by large companies in this country.

Those that are driving and controlling these cartels have tentacles throughout this parliament and throughout state governments—tentacles that reach to the Greens Party, the ALP and the Leader of the Opposition in the lower house. He is connected with GetUp!, being on the foundation board of directors. The CFMEU are funding GetUp! to the tune of $1.4 million. Then what does GetUp! do? GetUp then destroys the coal industry and is proud to do so, along with the Greens. The Greens are proud to destroy the coal industry.

What about honest union members paying their dues; turning up for work regularly; being bullied, intimidated and suppressed at work; and not being able to develop pride in their work; not being able to get a regular pay; not being able to improve safety; and not being able to improve security? Coming from the coal industry I know that we have progressed in the coal industry from the days when hundreds of men would get killed underground and the days when lungs would fill with coal dust, and people would suffocate and choke. We see the industry free from black lung thanks to regulations for safety, thanks to dramatic improvements in technology and thanks to dramatic improvements in management.

Honourable senators interjecting—

It still seems that in some parts of this chamber people think it is safety or productivity. It is quite clear, as I said earlier on today, that safety enables productivity. They are not mutually exclusive; they are mutually beneficial.

So black lung has now reappeared, very sadly, for a small number of people in our industry. Four of the eight levels of responsibility for workers' health are controlled or affected by the CFMEU directly—either union members, team supervisors, check inspectors or district check inspectors. They are funded by the industry, and yet all four of those levels have had to have been accomplices in ignoring safety procedures and good health procedures underground to see black lung come back. Then the CFMEU stands up, grandstands and blames everyone but the CFMEU.

Then we see, and I have experienced this, subtle intimidation at union meetings. I have stood up to those union bosses at those worksites and I have slowly been able to swing people around to common sense and to not being intimidated by union bosses. We see subtle intimidation, orchestration and making sure that people are coerced into backing union bosses' advice.

We talk about progress and the dramatic improvements in coalmine safety. They were made possible by the good work of many men and women and by invoking science, discipline and good management as well as some regulation. But look around at the benefits of our modern technology. We want to reverse this in the building industry. There are eight keys, in my experience, to human progress. The first and most important is freedom—the freedom of people to come up with ideas, the freedom of people to exchange ideas and the freedom of people to build on ideas. This ABCC bill is about restoring freedom so that people can share, innovate and create. It is about the freedom to innovate.

The second of the eight keys of progress that I see as essential is rule of law. Rule of law is fundamental to protecting people, rule of law is being smashed on building sites in this country and rule of law needs to be restored. The third is making sure that we have good, constitutional governance, and that is what I see the government doing here—making sure it fulfils its responsibilities to the people of Australia and workers on construction sites. The fourth key to progress is secure property rights, so that money cannot be stolen and property cannot be stolen, and we see this here as part of the protection. The fifth one that I have seen is honest money. That is not affected here. The sixth is fair tax, the seventh is families and the eighth is cheap, reliable energy.

We can see that we cannot continue to have human progress while sacrificing rule of law, sacrificing freedom and sacrificing property rights. Then of course we get onto tax. That is a subject that I see as needing a lot of attention in this country.

What I have also seen and been very encouraged by is the teamwork from the crossbench senators. I want to acknowledge especially Rod Culleton, Senator Xenophon, Derryn Hinch, Jacqui Lambie and everyone who came together on this. Rather than just criticising the government for some of the shortfalls in their bill—and there always will be, because all we have on one side are narrow views—there has been a coming together of many people listening to their constituents and actually building an even better ABCC bill. I am not happy with every aspect of it. I am not happy with the two-year transition, but that, I understand, has been discussed with Senator Xenophon, Derryn Hinch and also—