Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

UNIAM (—) (): Like my colleagues, this is a great opportunity to make a contribution on what is an important debate. It's one that I think we need to boil back to the basics rather than heading off into some of the tangents that some of those opposite have done in the contributions they've made so far.

At the end of the day the ABCC had one job, and that was to protect those in the industry who wanted to lawfully and safely go about their work. That is something that we are all for. In fact, safe workplaces result in greater productivity, something that is great for the people of Australia and for this economy, which has been through such a tough time over the last couple of years especially.

When we talk about the construction sector—1.1 million Australians work in it; we have 400,000 registered small businesses operating in this sector—we need to make sure we have every measure in place to ensure the protection of those who participate in this sector. With it being a vitally important part of the economy, in built-up areas and larger population centres, but also in regional communities, we need to make sure we have every protection in place for those who are part of that sector.

We have to look at the motivation behind the disempowerment of the ABCC. What is motivating the government to strip out the powers of this organisation, which really does have just one thing in mind—that is, the protection of workers, those who lawfully want to get about their business, do their job to the best of their ability without the undue influence of those who seek to interfere. What is behind the ALP's motivations to bring in the measures that they have, the measures we are seeking to disallow today? I think it's worth hovering on that for quite some time, as my colleagues also have. A range of issues have been raised that I'd love to ventilate in the time available to me, which I'm sure will run out tonight but we'll pick up again at another time. But what is most disturbing about this debate is the minimisation of what the CFMMEU did, what the ABCC took issue with and what the former government particularly focused on.

Debate interrupted.