Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Would the minister inform the House how the Australian building and construction industry has contributed to a more productive economy? Are there any threats to the maintenance of the rule of law in the construction industry and what is the government’s response?

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question and also for his excellent work in helping to prepare the fairness test for introduction—it was passed by the House of Representatives yesterday. There is no doubt that the Australian Building and Construction Commission has made a substantial contribution to the nation’s economy. Strike levels in the building industry have fallen to record lows. Before we set up the industry watchdog it cost 30 per cent more to put up a building in Melbourne than it cost in Sydney. That is because of the risk and the militancy associated with people from the ETU and others in Melbourne in particular. What we do know is that the CFMEU, which is the construction union which the Labor Party have as an affiliate, is front and centre of Labor Party policy in relation to the building and construction industry. The CFMEU funds the Labor Party. The CFMEU runs their campaigns. The CFMEU helps to support the candidates. As the Treasurer said, Kevin Reynolds is waiting for the big day when he can go into every building site.

This is recognised by the Master Builders Association of Western Australia. They have said that now when you are preparing to tender for a construction contract you have to build a ‘risk of Rudd’ premium into that contract because the risk of the Labor Party’s industrial relations laws is so significant and could increase costs. They went on to talk about how the Labor Party have form when it comes to pretending to make changes to the building industry watchdog. Yesterday, if you believed the media and the spin of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, you would have thought that they were backing away from their policy to abolish the construction industry watchdog. You would have thought that a stay of execution from 2007 to 2010 may have been a backing away from their policy. The Labor Party have form on this. You have to look at what the Labor Party do, not what they say.

In Western Australia when the Labor Party came into government they abolished the building industry watchdog. They did it quite cleverly—they took away funding and basically kept the inspectors in a room and never let them outside the door. Bob Carr, when he came into government in New South Wales, did exactly the same thing with the building industry watchdog. He gutted the watchdog. All was at the behest of the construction unions.

So how convenient it was for me to come across an article from the Australian where the true colours of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition were reflected—suffering that moment of hubris after the delivery of the industrial relations policy. It was reported in the Australian on 2 May 2007:

Wilhelm Harnisch, chief executive of Master Builders Australia, said the Deputy Opposition Leader had told him that the powers of the Australian Building and Construction Commission were so draconian that it needed to be scrapped. She said she wanted to strip out so called interrogation powers of the ABCC, which she saw as akin to interrogating terrorists ...

This is the body that she now pledges to keep until 2010. Only a month ago the Deputy Leader of the Opposition was saying that it had such outrageous powers that it was akin to interrogating terrorists and now she is trying to pretend that she is so enamoured with this body that she is going to keep it for awhile. The article goes on to say:

Ms Gillard allegedly made the comments at a special briefing to Mr Harnisch and three other business leaders during the ALP’s national conference on Saturday, soon after releasing detail of Labor’s industrial relations policy.

The truth of the matter is this: you have to look at what the Labor Party do, not what they say. They are trying to engage in political trickery. They are trying to get away with spin not substance. The Labor Party believe in killing the construction watchdog. They believe in replacing it with people like Kevin Reynolds, Dean Mighell and others who are going to have the power and influence to deliver the outcomes they want and not the outcomes that work in the best interests of the construction industry or, more importantly, in the best interests of Australia’s construction workers.