Lee Rhiannon (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am happy to acknowledge Senator O'Sullivan, as always. We know how serious this has been because under the ABCC there has actually been a prosecution of a construction worker who was a delegate of the union who actually took up the issue of apprentices. It is worth sharing because this is an area where your deception runs deep, Minister. In 2007 a 65-year-old delegate of the union, Charlie Corbett, was prosecuted and fined by the ABCC due to his attempts to get employment for an apprentice on a site in the Latrobe Valley. This was a huge project—a $37 million project—and there should have been lots of apprenticeships. But under the way the government runs things, apprenticeships are crashing because it is not their commitment. Minister, you are running the biggest cartel, working with industry to cut corners so they can increase their profits at every turn. I say again: yes, there is clause 11(3)(a), but the version encouraging apprenticeships does not deliver what this country so urgently needs.

Minister, you have built your career on abusing construction workers, unions, delegates and the CFMEU. You have stood here in speeches and speeches, and time and again in question time and when you were on the backbench. There you were, yelling about abuse, swearing, violence, what you call thuggery and all of the allegations you have reeled off again tonight. Do not get me wrong; I will stand here. I do not want to hear sexism and I do not want to hear about any of the abuse. But what you are talking about are allegations—by far, the majority of them are. Certainly, some of them will end up with guilty verdicts, but by far the majority will not, just as by far the majority have already been dismissed over the years when there have been previous rounds. Let's remember that every Liberal-National government that comes in here has some form of a royal commission or something similar into unions. As I have said time and time again, when the Liberal-Nationals get elected they have to deliver for their constituency.