Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Clearly the government members do not want to get up and defend their own policies; they want to play the quasi-role of the opposition of the state of Queensland; whereas we all know that there is no opposition—not an effective one, not one that can properly look after the constituents of its parties—in that state.

More importantly, I turn to matters that this chamber concerns itself with—that is, the industrial relations agenda of the government and, in particular, the way in which this government has chosen to abuse the occupational health and safety rights of employees across this nation. This government has form in OH&S. There is no doubt. It has been amending Commonwealth laws with respect to occupational health and safety matters this term, and indeed it sought to do so last term. I accept that there will be differences in industrial relations. There will always be differences between the two major parties, between the government and the opposition, in relation to that area of public policy. But I would not expect a decent, responsible government to choose to put as its higher priority its attack upon unions, as opposed to the safety of employees in this country.

What we have seen in the failure by the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations to answer a question yesterday by the shadow minister for workplace relations, and in the failure by the Acting Prime Minister, the Treasurer, to answer a question yesterday about what has happened to the opportunities of training health and safety delegates in this country as a result of the work choices act, is a complete abrogation of the Commonwealth responsibility to workers in this country.

The government may want to say that the responsibility for health and safety training and the regulation of health and safety are state matters. But when you design a set of employment laws that make it unlawful to train health and safety representatives in a union run course, when you prohibit the capacity for even an employer to bargain for a health and safety clause that involves union health and safety training, you are increasing the likelihood of injury and fatality in the workplace, because the reality is that most health and safety training in workplaces in this country is undertaken either by employers and unions together or by unions. It is true to say that you can still provide health and safety training, but removing the capacity to negotiate a clause that would enshrine the right for unions to be involved in occupational health and safety training will definitely increase the likelihood of death and injury in workplaces in this country.

As a result, this government will have blood on its hands. And the actions of the minister for workplace relations, who tried to defend the indefensible and suggested that it is okay not to allow unions and employers to negotiate union based health and safety training, will lead to a greater incidence of death and injury in workplaces. He personally has blood on his hands, as indeed this government has collective blood on its hands for failing to put the health and safety of Australian workers ahead of its antipathy towards unions.

We know how much this government hates unions. We would have thought that it would put health and safety training at workplaces above its own ideological hatred of employee organisations registered under the Workplace Relations Act—but it has not. What it has done instead is place Australian workers in a less safe situation than they would have been in had there not been the introduction of the Work Choices legislation.

That was what we were trying to get at yesterday in question time, when the Acting Prime Minister and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations refused to answer the question as to why they chose to prohibit the capacity for an employer and union to negotiate an enterprise bargaining clause that would allow unions to be involved in providing health and safety training. It is an utter disgrace that this government could imagine that their hatred of unions is such that they would endanger the safety of workers in this country—it is an absolute disgrace. (Time expired)