Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this and I appreciate a matter of this importance being brought before the Senate for discussion. It is interesting to note that Liberal senators are supporting One Nation in bringing this matter on, continuing the ever-strengthening Liberal-One Nation alliance. And it is even more astonishing to hear Senator Macdonald, the senior Liberal in this place—at least in terms of years served—saying 'any regulation or law deserves support'. I had to write that down to make sure I got it right! That is good to hear because this is a government that in so many areas completely ignores the laws it is required to enforce. And as Senator Carr just outlined—reasonably eloquently!—already they are completely ignoring their own standards, their own requirements and their own obligations in the area that is being talked about. As usual, they say it's the states' fault. Ensuring human safety, ensuring that humans and our environment are not poisoned, has been a core Greens value since the foundation of the Australian Greens.

Normally when we are talking about having regulations not just in place but enforced to protect people from being poisoned by corporations that put profit ahead of human safety and community need, you would expect Senator Macdonald to be complaining about green tape and red tape getting in the way of business being able to operate. This government has a fixation on attacking not just the CFMEU but also teachers. Today there was a motion by the Liberals, which, sadly, was supported not just by the usual One Nation-Liberal alliance but by others as well, attacking teachers in Queensland for handing out a sticker with a flag on it. The government are so concerned about the safety of buildings that they want to attack the union that focuses on the safety of buildings to protect the people who have to live in those buildings. That's how concerned they are about human safety. They want to attack the organisation that, more than anything else, focuses on trying to ensure that the building materials are safe. And yet they have the astonishing gall to come in here and say that any law or regulation deserves support! Time and time again, this government deliberately seeks to undermine its own legal obligations—in the environmental area, for starters. They completely and deliberately flout their obligations under our national environment laws and in so many other areas as well. I suppose we should be pleased that at least that statement from the government speaker is on the record, but it is hard to believe that it is actually genuine.

It is absolutely crucial that we ensure that the most fundamental aspects of human existence—our drinking water, the homes we live in and the hotels we stay in—are safe from contamination and also in terms of fire standards and all the other building standards that the Greens and others have promoted for years. We continually get attacked for red tape and green tape. What we are about is trying to ensure that sustainability, human safety and the basic rights and needs of the community are put first, rather than corporate profit. But we usually get attacked. Whilst there may be the usual hollow words that we have come to expect over quite a number of years now from Senator Macdonald, it is at least important to have that on the record.

So the Greens very much support the need for proper enforcement of construction codes and, in many cases, the strengthening of them to make them more effective. The tragedy of that fire in London that killed so many people was not just because of its basic human loss but because it was a symbol of what happens when corporate profit gets put ahead of human safety, particularly, as it happens, for those who are least well-off—those least able to afford to ensure that their drinking water and their homes are safe. (Time expired)