Page 1147 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2016
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A third higher when we had an MOU in place, an ACT Labor government and a federal Labor government! It goes on:
The ACT’s performance in respect of long-term injuries in the construction industry … paints an even worse picture, with the ACT’s result deteriorating, currently more than 50% worse than any other jurisdiction and approaching double the Australian average.
All at a time when the MOU with the unions was in place, with an ACT Labor government and a federal Labor government. It goes on:
Taken as a whole, the performance of the ACT’s construction sector in terms of incidents resulting in serious injury claims is a sorry one that must be improved.
If the purpose of the MOU was to improve workplace safety, it is a dismal failure. You have to ask the question: why is it there? What purpose does it have? And why is information given to a non-elected body, a body with no mandate to have this information? It is beyond me.
Mr Rattenbury, as always, gives a bit. He says, “Yes, you can have some information.” But he does not concede that it is not working. Indeed, Mr Rattenbury’s assessment from reading the document—I wonder whether he read the document—is that it would almost appear to be an ALP-unions agreement. The top of the document says “ACT government” and it is signed by the Chief Minister of the ACT government. Let us have no doubt about this. The ALP as such does not have access to these documents—or it should not have access to these documents. An agreement between the ALP and the unions in this regard would be somewhat useless. It is, without any doubt, an agreement with the ACT government where the ACT government hands over information that it should not.
Let us go back to Mr White from the CityNews this morning.
Every worker has the right to go to work and get home safely at the end of the day. The appalling injuries and tragic workplace deaths were preventable and working to prevent them is what union organisers do every day.
If that is the case, how come the report says this:
Taken as a whole, the performance of the ACT’s construction sector in terms of incidents resulting in serious injury claims is a sorry one that must be improved.
It says it is:
… currently … 50% worse than any other jurisdiction and approaching double the Australian average.
It would appear that union organisers are not perhaps doing such a good job. So you would ask the question: what are they doing? If in this period from 2005 until November 2012 we actually saw a deterioration in workplace safety, what were the
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