Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

Restricting subbies to a CFMEU panel and not being allowed to employ anyone else, apart from those in the CFMEU panel, discriminates heavily against the worker.

I was in a discussion with Senator Pauline Hanson and one of our office staff some months ago and I had the privilege of being with senior members of the ACTU and the CFMEU and I asked them for their opinions on what the big issues are that are facing this country. One of them said, 'The need to increase wages.' None of them said tax. Tax is crippling our industry in this country and crippling payrolls because we are taxing payrolls and we are taxing gross incomes. That means a decent increase to a person's gross income is prohibitive when it comes to employment in many industries. We are taxing people out of work because the tax system is antiquated and designed for another era.

The ACTU does not raise tax. The opposition leader in the lower house does not raise tax. He said he would not raise tax. The Prime Minister has said that the government will not raise tax. And, yet, jobs are supposed to be a big issue. We must address tax so the cost-of-living pressures are removed from everyday builders and their employees. It seems to me that everyday people are cannon fodder for the ALP unions cartel—the machine that tries to control, in cahoots with big builders, this building industry and is holding our country back. We need to protect small businesses and subbies. We need to protect honest workers, and we need to protect the taxpayers from union cartels in collusion with big business.

Then I come to the Greens—again, the Greens. Only the Greens could tell us that depreciation is a subsidy on hydrocarbon fuels. Only the Greens could lack understanding of accounting so that they could classify depreciation as a subsidy and talk about it in isolation as if only the hydrocarbon industry is getting it. I am tired of the rants, I am tired of the labels and I am tired of the old-world tactics. I need to help this country get on with coming back into the 21st century and improving the efficiency, safety and security of this industry. I am very much in favour of this bill.