John Madigan (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Free trade agreement'—few words evoke such disinterest amongst everyday Australians as these. In the next five minutes or so, I would like to address aspects of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement. This reckless agreement, I fear, will impact millions of Australians, regardless of their age, background, gender or ethnicity. It will mean Chinese workers will be able to come to Australia in their hundreds of thousands to work on our building sites and in our industries. This will happen at a time of rising unemployment.

These Chinese workers will be exempt from fundamental and basic language requirements. When Australian co-workers need to talk to their Chinese counterparts, it will need to be in Mandarin. A Chinese-trained electrician will not have the same skills and qualifications as are required of their Australian counterpart. Remember, China has 70,000 workplace deaths a year.

I am a blacksmith-boilermaker by trade. The two things I have found to be most important on a building site are competence and communication. The government, it seems, wants to undermine both. Imagine trying to give instructions to someone who does not understand the meaning of left or right and does not know blue from yellow. It would be difficult. It would be dangerous. It would not be right for a building site.

Now, safety is one thing, but sovereignty is another. We as a nation need to draw a line. If we are open to abdicating and negotiating away our ownership and our responsibility for our farmland, our electricity grids, our transport fuel security, our roads, the supply chain for our Defence Force, and now even where our labour force comes from—when we have an unemployment rate of 6.3 per cent—I cannot help but ask the question: who on earth does this government think it is working for? In one swift move, this government drove the car industry off the side of a cliff. It effectively said to tens of thousands of Australians that what they did for a living was no longer considered in the national interest. So it should come as no surprise to us that the government has signed a free trade agreement which will possibly lower standards across the board.

When I was young, I was always taught to strive for excellence in everything I did. I was taught that it was important to have high standards in my work and the way I treated others. This sort of behaviour in Australia is expected of all professionals, regardless of whether they are blue or white collar. It is therefore right that we have a rigorous regulatory framework to ensure those standards, the safety of our work sites and the protection of Australian consumers.

In summary, I would like to outline the reasons why the free trade agreement between China and Australia should not be adopted. First, it will allow subskilled Chinese tradies to work on 457 visas. Second, subskilled Chinese tradies who will not necessarily know how to speak English will be on our building sites in large numbers. Third, this will apply to building sites worth more than $150 million, which are relatively small commercial projects. Fourth, it will mean that future governments cannot change migration policies in this area. Fifth, Chinese who work in 10 selected 'skilled trades' will not be tested. It is for these reasons and many other reasons that I would like to have my unequivocal disapproval of this free trade agreement noted.