David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I met with subcontractors who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on work that they have completed because of our lax security-of-payment laws in Australia. The blame for this lies firmly at the feet of both major parties. To the coalition's credit, in 2016, Senator Cash commissioned John Murray to look into this issue. We've known it's an issue for a long time now. In 2018, John Murray released his report. It's been sitting gathering dust on a shelf somewhere in this building, and neither of the major parties will touch it.

It's disgraceful that we are not protecting the hardworking tradies who are building the houses that we live in and that we need a lot more of into the future. We've heard a lot about the need for more housing, yet we're expecting tradies to do their work and then not get paid for it. We wouldn't allow this to happen to anyone else, so why are we leaving tradies in the lurch by hundreds of thousands of dollars?

The Prime Minister made a commitment to at least respond to the Murray review in this term of parliament. As we know, things are quickly running out on this term. We've seen how quickly the majors can act when things are in their interests, when there's more money to be had come election time and when there's $30,000 per sitting member that goes to the party for administration fees. There's no need for a Senate inquiry then—ram this through. I'd love to see the same urgency in protecting the hardworking subbies and tradies across Australia. It is long overdue, and I urge the major parties: this needs to be a priority.