Senate debates

Monday, 5 September 2022

Regulations and Determinations

Code for the Tendering and Performance of Building Work Amendment Instrument 2022; Disallowance

7:38 pm

Photo of Hollie HughesHollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Lambie, that was just an outstanding contribution and completely spot on. And the thing that gets me—because the heads are down for those that are forced to be in the chamber on the other side, and, again, kudos to Senator Sheldon for being the only person brave enough to actually come in and try and defend this—is that in the previous parliament, those opposite were the bastions of the treatment of women. Women needed to be protected, they needed to be looked after, they needed to be safe in their workplace. And I remember many a speech from the far left and those opposite about how women needed to be safe in the workplace. Well, never again should any of you have the gall to come in here and demand in any shape or form that women be safe in the workplace, because you are opening the doors wide with a big welcome sign to the CFMMEU to come in and make women unsafe in the workplace—for women to be abused, to be pandered to in a misogynistic and condescending way or to never be able to achieve anything on a building site for being shut down by misogynistic bullies.

You are the government. You actually owe responsibility to all Australians, not just your mates who pay for your votes. It is an absolute disgrace, and any woman who sits in the ALP or the Greens and deems this worthy to pursue should never again open their mouth about the safety of women in the workplace, for the hypocrisy may ensure that they burst into flames immediately. We can all put up with a lot in this place, but the blatant hypocrisy that you lot are going on with is just astounding.

We hear from Senator Sheldon and those opposite that the breaches that have occurred are because of a sticker on a helmet or because a flag was flying. I can tell you there are a few flags flying around here that I'm not too happy about, but I still turn up to work and pretty much make sure they're hanging up in the right way for those virtue signallers that couldn't even get the flag flying in the right direction by hanging it correctly. They're so concerned about it they don't even notice which way to put the flag. Never let a good virtue signal—a symbol—get in the way of actually improving anybody's lives!

I apologise to those in this place if I repeat any, but, outrageously, I may not, because there are so many breaches that the CFMMEU has conducted and been through the ABCC for. There is such a litany of breaches and abuses on worksites that I'm pretty sure every member in this place could speak for a good 20 minutes just reading them out and just keep going and going. It would probably take us through to the end of the year, because those opposite, who campaigned on transparency, have ensured we have as few sitting weeks as possible to hold them to any form of account.

I commend Senator Lambie for also making this point: Where are they all? Who's here to defend them? As I said, Senator Sheldon has turned up. Where are the rest of them? Setka might not be sending the cheques if you're not here to really stand up for him. We know you're all going to vote there, but your tummies might not be tickled as heavily if you're not here to defend him and say how absolutely fantastic the CFMMEU is.

I thought I would go through a few of these because, as we know, this is a union that's been penalised for more breaches than any other union. In some ways maybe it's a bit unfair that we pick on the CFMMEU, because there are plenty of others with breaches as well. It's just that these are so breathtaking in the blatant behaviour, the misogynistic behaviour and the abuse of women—and for those who purport to be such great supporters of the LGBT community.

There is a term that Judge Vasta felt so appalled by he had to put an annexure on his judgement to explain what it meant.

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