Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak against this Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Amendment Bill 2017. I am very proud of the fact that Labor maintains its opposition to this bill, as we did to the original legislation that was passed only in November last year. It is very surprising that the government would need to bring back amendments to this legislation so soon after passing it. You would think that it would at least give it a little time to operate, to see how it was working. But, of course, some very interesting deals were done over the summer break.

The practical effect of this legislation is that if it is passed—and, obviously, that really does rely on the hands of the crossbenchers—it will prevent building companies from entering into enterprise bargaining agreements with unions and their workforce if those enterprise bargaining agreements contain particular clauses. I will go to that shortly. It will prevent building companies from tendering for Commonwealth building contracts if their enterprise bargaining agreements contain certain clauses, even if those clauses are reached as a result of a negotiation with construction unions and their own workforce.

It is pretty funny to see a government, the Liberal Party and the National Party, that is supposedly all about the free market—which is all about leaving employers and their workforces and unions to work things out for themselves rather than having the heavy hand of government come in and tell them what they can and cannot do—on this occasion abandon those free market principles and want to interfere directly in the negotiations that employers undertake with unions and their workforces. That will have a very intrusive effect on the kinds of things that employers, employees and unions can negotiate and, of course, only in one sector of the economy, being the construction workforce.

I do not really expect anything different of the LNP, as they are known in Queensland, or the Liberal Party and National Party down here. We know that their track record over many years is that they are not actually supporters of working people or their interests. We are seeing that flow through in terms of very poor wages growth in the economy at the moment. Average working people are struggling more than ever under the policies of this government. So, as I said, I do not really expect to see anything different from the LNP. We know that they hate unions and we know that they want to keep average working people's wages down.

But given all of the carry-on that we in Queensland have been seeing, particularly from the One Nation party over the last few months, I really did expect to see something different from them. In Queensland, day after day we have to put up with Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts travelling all around the countryside pretending to be the friends of battling people, struggling people, struggling families, blue-collar workers and pension recipients—all of those kinds of people. I have been saying for some time now that that is nothing more than a fraud. If you actually look at what One Nation does—

Senator Roberts interjecting—

Senator Roberts is over there chuckling; chuckling about the fact that he sells out working people, along with his colleague Senator Hanson. If you have a look at their track record, that is what they do every single time they come into this parliament. Today is no different.

Let's look at some of the things that are going to be prevented as a result of this legislation. If Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts and the rest of their One Nation colleagues vote for this legislation it will mean that if building companies want to get work from the Commonwealth they will not be able to have enterprise bargaining agreements that include some very important provisions that you would expect a party like One Nation, which says it is the friend of battlers and blue-collar workers, to support. But no.

These are some of the things that the One Nation party are getting ready to support. If this legislation goes through, enterprise bargaining agreements will no longer be able to include agreements reached by employers, unions and their workforce to insist on footwear and protective safety equipment being Australian made. Am I the only one who has been listening to Senator Roberts? He continues to chuckle over there. Am I the only one who has been hearing Senator Roberts and Senator Hanson running around the countryside talking about the importance of sticking up for Australian-made products and jobs for Australians?

What they are getting ready to do is vote for legislation that is going to stop building companies, unions and workforces agreeing to insist on Australian-made protective equipment and footwear. How is that assisting Australian workers? How many jobs are going to disappear as a result of this legislation going through and building companies and their workforces no longer being able to reach agreement to have Australian-made equipment?

But it is not just that. If this legislation goes through, building companies and their workforces and unions will not be able to insist on clauses in enterprise bargaining agreements that require training for asbestos safety. How many dozens, hundreds, thousands of Australian workers have died over the last few decades as a result of terrible practices around the use of asbestos? I would have thought that a party that stands up for the battlers, that stands up for blue-collar workers who have to handle this kind of dangerous product, would actually be voting to insist on training around asbestos safety. But, no, what One Nation is planning to do today, what Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts are planning to do today is say that enterprise bargaining agreements can no longer have clauses that require asbestos training to happen. How is that going to help battlers? How is it going to help workers? Again, Senator Roberts is sitting there chuckling about the fact that asbestos training, which saves people's lives, is going to be taken out of enterprise bargaining agreements if companies want to get Commonwealth contracts.

There are other ones if this legislation goes through. Currently companies are able to have—oh, the chuckler has a point of order.