Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to draw the attention of the Senate to the attacks on working men and women in my state of Queensland. Through a series of legislative changes the Newman government has stripped back and reduced workplace health and safety standards, slashed the workers compensation provisions and undermined the independence of the industrial umpire. These attacks on Queenslanders are driven by nothing more than an ideological fervour to undermine the pay and conditions workers—it appears to be in the DNA of the Liberals. The Newman government this year introduced legislation which prevents workplace based health and safety officers from having the power to stop work or a particular activity if the workplace or a particular activity is deemed a safety risk; and prevents union WHS officers or organisers from having access to sites when there is a safety risk or there has been an incident. This is achieved by imposing the requirement for union officials to give notice of their intention to enter the site and requiring them to wait 24 hours before they are allowed to enter the site. This clearly creates a risk that evidence will be changed after an incident or that some irresponsible employers will change safety concerns before having the WHS representative on site. These changes present a direct threat to the safety of workers as well as a major hurdle to potential workers compensation claims.

I turn now to the outrageous and unprecedented workers compensation scheme changes enacted by the Newman LNP government. These changes are so out of touch, so extreme and so unfair that even the LNP dominated Queensland parliamentary committee which inquired into the proposed legislation brought down a unanimous report that supported the existing workers compensation scheme in Queensland. The Queensland Attorney-General ignored the recommendation by his own MPs to keep the existing scheme and introduced his extremist agenda to tear down Queensland's workers compensation scheme.

The key change that the Newman government introduced was a threshold of a five per cent degree of permanent impairment, or DPI. This means that a worker assessed as having less than five per cent DPI would have no recourse to pursue common law claims. The legislation means that a five per cent threshold would be applied even if the injury was significant enough to prevent an injured worker from returning to their employment or the injury was caused by the negligence of the employer.

Another radical and inherently unfair part of the legislation is the requirement for prospective employees to disclose any previous injury regardless of whether that injury would impact on the ability of the prospective employee to carry out the work required for the role. It also creates a central database of claims history which employers can apply to access. Employers could claim that a worker had an undisclosed injury and would therefore not be able to receive compensation if they are injured. This legislation is actively discouraging previously injured workers from coming back into the workforce by clearly discriminating against them.

The Newman government has created the most anti-worker and unbalanced industrial relations jurisdiction in this country. Provisions which both sides of politics have come to hold as non-controversial and key to creating a balanced approach to industrial relations have been torn apart by the Queensland government's extreme far right policies to hurt workers. It is easier to leave WorkCover for self-insurance now as a consequence of these changes. Premier Newman and his Attorney-General have made it significantly easier for employers to leave WorkCover. As a result of the LNP's changes, WorkCover now has the power to use or renew a self-insurance licence to employers who fail to meet basic provisions. These provisions are that the employer has a minimum of 2,000 full-time equivalent workers employed in Queensland; has satisfactory occupational health and safety performance; has given the required unconditional bank guarantee or cash deposit; has the required reinsurance cover; and is fit and proper to be self-insured.

The scheme has a workers compensation pool to spread the risk to ensure that all workers and all employers continue to be covered and have a decent workers compensation system in Queensland. This could be torn apart by these changes. When self-insurers scoot out of the system, there will be less in the scheme and workers will then bear the brunt of this. It has been the hallmark of the Newman government to attack workers through legislation in occupational health and safety, industrial relations and workers compensation. In the industrial landscape, we have also seen the mass sacking of tens of thousands of workers and severe cuts for Queenslanders. They deserve much better.