This submission builds on AREEA’s July 2009 submission to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee’s inquiry into the Building & Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill 2009.
With a couple of differences, the earlier bill was almost identical to the newly-proposed Building & Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill 2011, to which this current submission relates. AREEA contends now, as it did in 2009, that the overall effect of the bill will be to water down the building industry inspectorate’s capacity to ensure that building and construction industry participants conduct their activities in accordance with the law, which will have serious flow-on effects to the Australian economy.
There remain a culture of unlawfulness in the building and construction industry which requires the continuation of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC). While this culture has been curtailed by the ABCC it poses a future threat should the existing legislative scheme be dismantled and weakened and sends out the completely wrong message to all participants.