Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The suburb of Cornubia, once a part of Bowman, is one of two suburbs that have been redistributed out of Bowman but we still have a very strong community connection to this fine suburb. It found itself in the national media this week because it was at the centre of the royal commission into union corruption, which opened in my fine city of Brisbane this week. The question was whether trades and supplies had been used to build the home of a former Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Queensland boss.

We have all heard of kickbacks. There is a reason why we do not hear about them very often any more. It is because there are always victims involved. A kickback that is given from a major construction firm to a union can only hurt the worker whether they are unionised or not. Because any deal where a surplus is basically shared with a union is surplus that cannot be shared with the worker; it is fairly simple. And cutting favourable deals that allow union representatives to personally profit, secretly without the worker knowing, is at the heart of the deception that can be many cases it union membership that gives you nothing in return.

On Monday, the commission heard in Brisbane about the house of the former CFMEU Queensland boss—and I will not name him tonight—who was secretly obtaining building trades services and supplies while having them billed to a Springfield shopping centre development—of course that also has implications for the tax returns of those building the shopping centre. The commission intends to investigate whether this individual fraudulently benefited from kickbacks provided by the major construction firm that was doing an enterprise employment deal with that union.

The union representative bought the house on a semirural block and paid a small fortune for it. But then between 2012 and 2014, while this individual was BLF secretary, went on to construct a second dwelling on that property. I just want to compare and contrast this dwelling, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, with your house or the homes of many of us here in the chamber that are still here at 28 minutes past nine. It had 2.1 metre ceilings, four king-size bedrooms, four bathrooms, reverse cycle air conditioning, polished concrete flooring, walk-in wardrobes, walk-in pantries, a second butler's kitchen on top of the kitchen, a three-car garage and a 12-metre saltwater swimming pool.

This is not the life of a worker on a minimum wage; this is a life, potentially, of someone taking kickbacks in a secret deal with a construction firm. I hope that the royal and commission will investigate this further because on Monday the commission heard that an executive from this firm had specifically said to a tiler, 'I want you to go and do tiling work for this individual.' It turned out to be to the value of $50,000—that is a lot of tiling in anyone's language. It was either very expensive Italian tiles or many square metres of it.

Last week the property that was advertised the sale, this house will be relieved, has been withdrawn from sale. This is why we have to examine these elements. I am not gaining cheap shots from criticising union heavies. Quite the contrary, I am concerned about the impact it has on workers. It is one thing to negotiate a deal which may or may not leave a worker worse off—we have tests to identify whether that is the case—but it is completely unacceptable to any reasonable person that workers should be in the dark while these kinds of transactions are potentially taking place. It is very important this union royal commission continues to investigate these examples. This is one very close to home for my electorate and I commend the work of the commission.

House adjourned at 21:30

MR ZAPPIA: To move—

That this House:

(1) notes that as at:

(a) 31 March 2015 there were over 106,000 primary Temporary Work (Skilled) (subclass 457) visa holders in Australia;

(b) 31 December 2014 there were over 160,000 Working Holiday (subclass 417) and Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa holders in Australia; and

(c) 30 June 2014 there were an estimated 62,100 unlawful non-citizens in Australia;

(2) further notes that:

(a) in August 2015 there were around 780,000 Australians who were unemployed and that 280,000 of those were aged 15 to 24; and

(b) the Senate is currently conducting an inquiry, the completion date of which was recently extended to February 2016, into the impact of Australia's temporary work visa programs on the Australian labour market and on the temporary work visa holders;

(3) ensures that genuine labour market testing be applied to temporary work visas; and

(4) calls on the Government to ensure that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection has sufficient resources to properly ensure compliance with Australian visa conditions.

MS L. M. CHESTERS To move—

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the ongoing media reports and Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) findings into the exploitation of Working Holiday visa (subclass 417) holders, Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) holders and international students;

(b) nationwide monitoring by the FWO has uncovered suspected exploitation in 20 per cent of 560 migrant Temporary Work (Skilled) visa (subclass 457) worker cases examined between October 2014 and January 2015;

(c) the FWO said 'migrant workers complaints of mistreatment had soared in recent years, and sponsorship breaches were often deliberate acts of exploitation by unscrupulous employers';

(d) exploitation by employers has been identified in various industries including but not limited to construction, hospitality, cleaning, food processing, agriculture, the marketing and promotions sector, privately owned childcare centres and kindergartens, shopping trolley collectors and postal service contractors;

(e) many of these workers are low paid and low skilled, and are on Temporary Work (Skilled) visas (subclass 457), Working Holiday visas (subclass 417) or student visas; and

(f) this unconscionable conduct is widespread and is creating a sub class of workers that does not just hurt the employees; it puts at risk the pay and working conditions of all Australians;

(2) acknowledges the:

(a) recent hard work of the FWO to monitor, investigate, and expose potential breaches of the work visa program and Australian workplace laws; and

(b) proactive role the Australian union movement has played to highlight and expose unconscionable conduct by some employers and industries exploiting temporary visa workers;

(3) condemns the Government's:

(a) inaction to immediately address and implement the findings of recent FWO reports in relation to this matter; and

(b) recent moves to relax regulations for bringing in temporary visa workers, instead of toughening the rules; and

(4) calls on the Government to:

(a) immediately strengthen the work visa safeguards it has deliberately relaxed to make it easier for companies to hire overseas workers; and

(b) ensure that Australia's work visa program has robust safeguards in place to protect all workers and is not being used as a back door avenue to source cheap labour.

MS CLAYDON: To move—

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) National Carers Week runs from 11 to 17 October 2015 to recognise and celebrate the outstanding contribution unpaid carers make to our nation;

(b) carers in Australia make an enormous contribution to our communities and our national economy;

(c) in 2015, it is estimated that nearly 2.9 million Australians will provide more than 1.9 billion hours of informal and unpaid care; and

(d) the replacement value of informal care would be $60.3 billion, equivalent to 3.8 per cent of gross domestic product and 60 per cent of the health and social work industry budget; and

(2) congratulates Carers Australia for its strong advocacy and support for those providing care and support to family members and friends who have a disability, mental illness, chronic condition, terminal illness and alcohol or other drug issue, or who are frail aged.

MR DANBY: To move—

That this House calls on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to debate in Parliament:

(1) the merits of the Government's changing policy toward Iran, including the rationale and likely consequences of:

(a) signing an intelligence sharing agreement with Iran, given Iran's financial, military and intelligence support of regional militias, including some proscribed by the Australian Parliament; and

(b) allowing Iran to establish consulates or 'cultural centres' in Melbourne and Sydney, given the history of terrorism-supporting activities from similar Iranian outposts around the world; and

(2) any move to amend Australia's autonomous sanctions in regard to Iran before such a decision is taken.