HANSARD EXTRACT
| Building and
Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (OHS) Bill 2007:
Second Reading |
| 28 May 2005 |
Mr HAYES
(Werriwa) (8.55 p.m.)—The more
this government attempts to move legislation the more we see
amendments before this place. Quite frankly, the government has
become a serial offender in that we have regularly seen tax bills
before this place, but it seems that this legislative sloppiness, if
you like, has come down to industrial relations. We saw the mother
of all amendments come into this place today which is likely to be
debated sometime during the course of this week.
When you think about it, this takes away a lot of the need for the
government to actually come up with ideas. The government is bereft
of ideas when it comes to change. It is certainly bereft of ideas
when it comes to having a decent legislative program. Quite frankly,
the
Building and Construction Industry Improvement
Amendment (OHS) Bill 2007 is just another example of
that. Quite frankly, amendments to their own legislation must be a
welcome sight when they come to the cabinet table, because it means
that ministers do not have to come up with new ideas; it means that
ministers do not have to try and take money away from their
taxpayer-funded re-election campaigns to invest in things such as
infrastructure, health or the provision of further education and
training. I digress.
In
terms of the contribution we just heard from the member for Moreton,
it would be remiss of me if I did not make some comment. I have to
say that I and, I suppose, every other working Australian would take
umbrage at the way they are demeaning the health and safety issues
of workers on sites. I and every other worker in this country place
a lot of truck on having safe workplaces. It has been simply
trivialised. The member for Moreton is not the first to do that and
will not be the last. I have to say, putting health and safety as
low as that in this debate is a fair indication of the standing of a
lot of members opposite.
This bill is not opposed by the Labor Party, but I would like to
make certain comments in terms of commending Labor’s second reading
amendment to the House. The bill before us amends a bill that was
passed by the House in August 2005. Fewer than two years have passed
since we debated amendments to the Building and Construction
Industry Improvement Act 2005. I might add that this is not the
first time that this bill has been amended. Prior to the original
bill being put before this House, the Minister for Employment and
Workplace Relations introduced about 30 pages of amendments to the
original bill. He did not get it right then and it seems that he has
not got it right now, as we are here debating further amendments
today.
The purpose of this bill is to amend the Building and Construction
Industry Improvement Act 2005, extending the application of the
Australian government’s building and construction industry
occupational health and safety accreditation scheme, administered by
the Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner, to cover the
situation where building work is indirectly funded by the
Commonwealth or a Commonwealth authority and to ensure that persons
are accredited under the scheme at the time of entering into a
contract for the building work funded by the Commonwealth or a
Commonwealth authority, and that the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth—
Debate interrupted.
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