Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of Labor to oppose this bill. This bill is a blatant attack on workers and unions in the building and construction industry, and, as we have seen, it is about trying to push this attack wider than the building and construction industry. It is using the most incompetent public servant that I have ever come across, Mr Nigel Hadgkiss, as the hatchet man for the coalition government to attack working people, attack their wages and attack their conditions.

There has been a whole army of coalition members getting up and attacking the CFMEU—attacking union officials doing their job. The overwhelming majority of workers in the building and construction industry would not recognise their industry as the industry that is purported to be the problem industry that comes out of the mouths of coalition MPs day in and day out. The overwhelming majority of building and construction workers go to work knowing that they have respect because they have a strong union. They go to work understanding that their boss cannot simply dismiss them as many white-collar middle management workers are dismissed and treated badly around the country. That cannot happen to building and construction workers because they have an effective union out there working day in, day out for them.

This building code is designed to restrict effective bargaining in the industry. It is designed to destroy effective trade unionism. It is targeted against the CFMEU in particular. Let me tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, when this happens building workers' wages and conditions will fall. The standard of living of building workers will fall. It has huge implications for building—