Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here as a humble servant of the people of Queensland and Australia. It is always interesting to listen to Senator Roberts. The reality is that Senator Roberts is the ideological warrior for Senator Hanson. He pursues an anti-worker agenda wherever he can. They are going to be held to account for that in their electorate. That is the reality of this situation and that is what they are going to have to face up to over the coming months.

It is really disappointing that we are seeing the return of this bill to this chamber after the Christmas break. As Donald Trump would say: I declare that sad. Because, whilst many of us would have taken time over the Christmas break to reflect on the year gone by and think about the year ahead, it looks as though Senator Hinch took his time to look at what he could do to hurt workers in Australia. That is really disappointing. I would echo the thoughts of Senator Carr when he highlighted some of the commitments that Senator Hinch gave in regard to what legislation he would support in this parliament. It is disappointing that he has backtracked on that. The workers of Australia are going to suffer the consequences of that.

I also know that some of those senators have complained about being held to account for their actions in this chamber. Well, unions have been doing that for 100 years. They will continue to do it for 100 years. They hold politicians of all persuasions to account for their actions in parliament. They have an absolute right to do that, and if you do not like it, stop voting for antiworker laws. It is as simple as that. The LNP are going to come back in this parliament again and again as they pursue an ideological agenda to hurt workers in this country. They think that they have got the crossbench on the book, who are going to vote with them every day of the week. If you do not like being held to account for it, do not do it. Go out there, listen to workers and hear about the results that this has.

We have all seen what happens when the Liberal National Party gets its way in the Senate. Their Work Choices agenda was a relentless attack on working Australians. The Australian people clearly saw this for its overreach and were happy to turf them out in 2007. We have seen that at various state levels as well, where we have had Liberal-National Party administrations come in and try to hurt workers. They have suffered the consequences as a result. But now we see further amendments to the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act 2016 less than three months after the passage of this act. What a shambles it is from a government that had to horse trade on provisions late last year, and now we are back having to have a second crack at it.

What would these latest amendments do? They would wind back the exemption period for non-code-compliant companies from two years to nine months. They would limit the exemption so that companies that are not code compliant may tender but not be awarded any Commonwealth building within the nine-month exemption period. The effect of this amendment on companies who have signed agreements with unions that are legal but not code compliant is that they will make a commercial decision not to tender for Commonwealth building work or they will need to terminate agreements and renegotiate. However, the determination process may open up the ability of unions to take protected industrial action, as is their right. So this government is willingly trying to cause industrial unrest to achieve their misguided goals. Labor did not support the Building Code or the two-year transition period. This amendment will lead to further chaos in the building industry as a result.

What we saw back in 2007 was that the coordinated and effective campaigning of the union movement was able to successfully oppose the Work Choices agenda. Those opposite have clearly forgotten the lessons of that time. They continue to come in here and pursue an antiworker agenda, and at the moment they have a Senate crossbench that is prepared to support them.

So let's be clear about this amendment bill. It will make it easier for companies also to also hire foreign workers. Whilst at one level you get Senator Roberts, who claims to stand up for Australian workers, he has done nothing in this chamber to do any such thing. All we see are crackpot conspiracy theories. He will be blaming the CFMEU for the United Nations, the way he is going at the moment. In the last term we saw the absolute beat-up of the royal commission on trade unions conducted by Dyson Heydon. Let's not pretend that this legislation brought about better workplaces or safety for workers. Those opposite have never wanted that. Despite their protests to the contrary, they had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do anything in regard to the criminal rip-offs that have been happening at 7-Eleven. They are happy to stand up and attack the unions on the one hand but remain silent while workers in this country are being ripped off. The government has also done nothing to look at the widespread corruption and rorting of 457 visas and the temporary work visa program.

When you look at this government's actions as a whole, you can clearly see that the only interest they have in the workplace is when they think they can get away with some union bashing. They are also apparently opposed to red tape, unless it is red tape that restricts the work of unions. Perhaps if they paid as much attention to managing the economy as they do to managing unions the country would be better off as a result. What we have seen when we look at wage growth is the lowest wage growth since the measure started being reported in 1998—1.9 per cent over the last year. This is a government without any long-term agenda for the country, without any reason for being in government other than attacking workers and their role in the workplace. They want to attack unions and workers until Australia is a sort of low-wage, easy-to-fire country racing to the bottom on pay and conditions. The government admits the growing debt but refuses to scrap its $50 billion worth of tax cuts for big business. Add to this the lowest wage growth in two decades and the lowest participation rate in a decade and you have very poor set of economic circumstances. The trickle-down economics that was comprehensively disproved back in the 1980s is back with this government, and they are pursuing it relentlessly.

The ABCC breaches the principle of equality before the law. Workers in the building and construction industry should be subject to the same rules as other workers. This legislation extends the reach of the ABCC into picketing, offshore construction, transport and the supply of goods to building sites. If Malcolm Turnbull had his way, construction workers would be hit with a $36,000 fine for acting on safety conditions at work. What could be more important than that in the building industry, where we have seen deaths very recently?

They try to claim that this is going to give a substantial benefit economically, but analysis by the Parliamentary Library shows that when the ABCC was last in operation between 2004 and 2012, the cost of non-residential building grew faster than CPI. So it actually cost more to build when the ABCC was around, not less. And although the government's attack on unions is driving record low wages even lower, it seems the Prime Minister and the Treasurer cannot actually get their arguments straight. The Prime Minister says that the ABCC stops excessive wages growth, whereas the Treasurer says it will support wages growth. Whilst we have the lowest wage growth in two decades, you would think that the Prime Minister and Treasurer would at least get their story straight.

It seems this government will use every argument it thinks suited to try desperately to pass this bill. In addition to the economic argument, we repudiate this bill because of its restrictions on democratic rights. Under the ABCC, workers will be guilty until proven innocent. This is a shocking reversal of the presumption of innocence. The principle that the prosecution bears the onus of proof against an accused is regarded as a cardinal principle of our system of justice. Criminals such as drug dealers are protected by the presumption of innocence, but, under Malcolm Turnbull's ABCC legislation, construction workers are not. So it just goes to prove that this is nothing more than an ideological attack on unions.

We on this side of the chamber recognise the important role that unions play in Australian society. They are created and registered for the purpose of representing Australian employers and employees. But they also represent their members before industrial tribunals and courts, and work with government on policy matters ranging from employment issues to economic and social policy. Despite the claims of those opposite, Labor supports strong and proportionate regulation on registered organisations and unions. But it comes as no surprise to anyone that this government is constantly being overly alarmist when it comes to matters remotely related to unions. We of course understand that the trade union movement has an important role to play in Australian society. Some of the achievements the union movement can take credit for are: the eight-hour day; better workplace health and safety; pushing for equal pay for women; superannuation; and Medicare.

Those opposite would have us go down the path of increasing inequality and increasing entrenched disadvantage. Their goal is not to support stronger unions, representing the interests of working people. Their goal is to destroy the link between trade unions and the only political party that acts in the interests of working people, the Australian Labor Party. You can see this through their mishandling of the current public sector agreements at the federal level. There have now been 73 rejections by public sector workforces of proposals put forward by this government. That is leaving almost 100,000 public servants at the federal level without an agreement that expired in mid-2014. That is a clear example of this government's anti-worker agenda.

Labor will continue to oppose this legislation. We urge crossbenchers to rethink their position on these issues because anti-worker legislation is going to continue to come. The Labor Party will continue to oppose, and the crossbench must take a serious look at their actions.