George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Senator Arbib. Minister, why did the government remove the requirement for companies tendering for projects under the so-called Nation Building and Jobs Plan to have occupational health and safety accreditation?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That is a very important issue because OH&S is something that the government is working on across the board and cooperatively with the states. There are national requirements for occupational health and safety and there is accreditation that must be in place. As all senators know, the stimulus package was undertaken in the middle of a global recession. There was a need for urgency to ensure that infrastructure was put in place to support jobs and small business.

We received numerous representations from small business at the time saying that under the national OH&S regulations they would be excluded from undertaking work. The Labor Party and the Rudd government has always and will always support small business, and there were changes made to ensure that small businesses were not disadvantaged in the purchasing and tendering arrangements from the Nation Building and Jobs Plan. I am proud of the decision we made to undertake that.

Occupational health and safety is still in place under state legislation. It is still in place in each state and each project, but at the same time we have ensured that small businesses, the same small businesses that the coalition would deny work to, the same small businesses that the Liberal Party would be happy to close down by withdrawing the stimulus, are getting support through thousands and thousands of projects. I have told the Senate on numerous occasions that there are 35,000 projects getting under way over the next 14 months. That is what the Rudd government is about. Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party have had one year in office and there is still no jobs plan.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Arbib, you need to use the correct title of a person in the other place.

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. Mr Turnbull still has no jobs plan.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Did the minister consult the relevant unions about the abandonment of the OH&S safety net for these projects before the relevant statutory instrument, which I can show the minister, was signed?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am very surprised that the Liberal Party, who once thought they were the champions of small business and claim to be the champions of small business, would be happy for small businesses not to work on stimulus projects. Mr President, I can inform Senator Brandis and all senators that we consulted across industry, across the union movement and with all the states and the territories and there were discussions at COAG. In the end it was about jobs and it was about small business because we care about small business. Every job we can save in small business has a multiplier effect. Unemployment is such a terrible phenomenon. The Liberal Party do not care about it and they do not understand that unemployment does not just affect the person who loses their job; it affects their family, it affects their friends, it leads to crime and it leads to social dislocation. That is what unemployment is about. The Liberal Party could not care less. The shadow Treasurer has said, ‘It is not our top priority’— (Time expired)

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Why does the government think that the safety of workers on Julia Gillard memorial school hall building sites is less important than on other Commonwealth funded building sites? Isn’t abandonment of the OH&S regulations proof that, in its rush to get the promotional signs for these projects up, the government made a conscious decision to abandon its OH&S standards?

Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I reaffirm, again, that this decision has not compromised safety standards in any way, and I again confirm to the Senate that this decision was taken to ensure that the thousands and thousands of small businesses that operate in this country had access to nation-building projects. I do hope that Liberal Party and National Party senators never come in here and blame us for local tradespeople not being able to get access to work while at the same time criticise us on this change in OH&S. This change allowed thousands of small businesses across the country to get access to nation-building projects. I am proud of the decision we took. It was the right decision and it means we are supporting jobs. As the OECD said, 200,000 jobs would be lost, and the Liberal Party’s plan for jobs is to roll back the stimulus and go back to Work Choices. (Time expired)