David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I understand the embarrassment about having the hypocrisy of your former government pointed out. I understand that it's awkward to have pointed out the gross double standards and hypocrisy whereby you're willing to prosecute unions for stickers but not prosecute a multinational gaming corporation that was found to have engaged in money-laundering and criminal activity under your own watch. I understand that the hypocrisy is awkward to hear. I get it, and I get it's awkward. But let's be clear: the risk to workers' safety is not flags. It has never been stickers. The risk to workers' safety in the construction industry is the lawlessness, the deregulation, the attacks on unions and the attacks on safety. That's why young apprentices go to work in the morning and don't come home. That's why construction workers, tragically, have deaths on a weekly basis on construction sites. It's not about stickers. It's not about flags. It's because of the war on safety, the war on unions, the deregulation and the property developer donations that this mob suck down, day after day—the property developer donations that roll like gold into the Liberal Party's coffers federally, creating the lawlessness that's creating the safety issues on the construction sites. Of course we don't support this disallowance motion.