HANSARD EXTRACT
|
Adjournment: Occupational Health and Safety |
| 23 May 2006 |
Mr HAYES (Werriwa) (9.00
p.m.)—As a former official of the Australian Workers
Union, I represented, amongst others, miners in the metalliferous
mining industry. Not only did I represent those miners in the courts
but I also attended mine sites and accompanied miners underground.
The mining industry has not always been as buoyant as it is today,
propped up by high commodity prices. I remember when ore prices
plummeted some years ago and a number of mines, particularly smaller
ones, started to seriously consider closing. Mine managements were
under intense pressure to look for cost cutting. As is evident from
the recent events at Beaconsfield, mines are often an important
economic asset in small towns. While workers were willing to
consider compromising on some things in order to keep the mine open
and keep their jobs, there was one thing on which miners were never
willing to compromise, and that was safety in the workplace. If
there is anything that we should take from Beaconsfield it is that
we can never do enough to make sure that mines—or any other
workplaces for that matter—are safe for people to work in.
Over the years it
was the union movement that brought safety to the attention of mine
owners and business operators more generally. Unions campaigned for
improved health and safety in the mining industry, often opposed in
boardrooms and corporate offices on the basis of cost.
Todd
Russell himself indicated recently
in that interview that it was through his training that he knew and
understood the scope of the rescue operation that was taking place.
It is against this
backdrop, one which has shown the dangers faced when people go off
to work each day, that this government has actively sought to
undermine the hard-won advances in safety for working Australians.
The Howard
government has specifically banned union provided occupational
health and safety training from industrial agreements. Over the last
couple of days we have heard repeated yet pathetic attempts by the
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and the Acting Prime
Minister to deny this, but you only need to take a look at their own
industrial relations regulations to find out the facts. Section 8.5
of the Workplace Relations Regulations lists the prohibited content
for both individual and collective industrial agreements. It states:
A term of a
workplace agreement is prohibited content to the extent that it
deals with the following:
…
… …
(c) employees bound
by the agreement receiving leave to attend training (however
described) provided by a trade union.
That is not the end
of the story. Section 365 of the act provides for fines of up to
$33,000 for a body simply seeking to include any prohibited content
in an agreement. That is a fantastic way to emphasise the point. If
you are still not convinced, you need only look at the conclusion of
the Office of the Employment Advocate, the government’s own adviser
on such matters, on 19 April this year, when it said in relation to
mining matter before it:
Bona fide union
business can include leave to attend training ... As such I have
concluded that it falls within the terms of Regulation 8.5(1)(c)—
that is, prohibited content.
During the term of this parliament the government has progressively
sought to undermine the role of trade unions in OH&S in the passage
of
the National
Occupational Health and Safety Commission (Repeal, Consequential and
Transitional Provisions) Bill 2005, the Occupational Health and
Safety (Commonwealth Employment) Amendment Bill 2005 and the
Occupational Health and Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation
Legislation Amendment Bill 2005. Each of these bills acted to
compromise safety regulations and put people at risk.
As a parent of a son
who works in a mine, I believe it is simply not acceptable for the
government and industry to benefit from the mining boom while making
it easier for companies to cut corners on safety by trying to
sideline legitimate union run health and safety training. This
government is trying to drive a stake through the heart of
occupational health and safety. It is only too willing to put the
safety of working Australians at risk as it pursues its ideological
campaign to destroy the union movement. This will not be tolerated.
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