Page 142 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 10 February 2016
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In short, while the rules of evidence were always a useful and practical guide for many questions arising in the Commission, ultimately the Commission was required to, and did, proceed in a way which met the other demands upon it, including the necessity of delivering its Report on time in accordance with the Letters Patent, provided that the requirements of due process were also met.
So you see, Madam Speaker, it was clearly a political set-up; they do not have to provide the same scrutiny as a court. The evidence produced by this politically motivated commission is so questionable that the interim report even noted that the concept of onus of proof does not apply in a royal commission. These are their words in their report. From this, it follows that, strictly speaking, neither the civil standard nor the criminal standard of proof applies either.
The final report of the commission was released yesterday and what a predictable document it is. The recommendations focus on reducing the abilities of unions to organise and protect workers and also fit within the aims and intentions of the proposed ABCC legislation currently before the federal parliament. Some of Commissioner Heydon’s recommendations would reduce right of entry powers, reduce organising abilities and allow parliamentary intervention into the union movement, amongst other things. You would be forgiven if you were to mistake some of the recommendations for Liberal Party attitudes towards unions. It is not surprising Commissioner Heydon was the choice to speak at that fundraiser.
This entire commission was a political exercise and simply a waste of taxpayers’ money. Within any organisation there are individuals able to commit crimes. There were charges laid against a couple of members of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in relation to evidence which was given at the commission. To date no-one—no-one—from the ACT branch of the CFMEU has been found guilty of any crimes, and Johnny Lomax has had his case dismissed entirely. One employee, who admitted to offences while under questioning by the commission, was promptly sacked and expelled from the union. These are people from a union of 120,000-strong members, and I have mentioned a couple. How many members of the New South Wales Liberal Party were implicated in corrupt dealings by ICAC evidence in the past few years? Ten. So would the Canberra Liberals proceed to claim that the entire New South Wales Liberal Party was to be dealt with? I highly doubt it.
Unions and union officials play a critical work safety role in the territory, particularly in the high risk construction industry. I have spoken on a number of occasions in the Assembly about the enormous progress that has been made in construction safety since this government agreed to all of the recommendations put forward by the getting home safely inquiry. We have worked together to prevent injury and to reduce the social and economic impact of work injury. Employers, workers and the community have enjoyed very significant benefits as a result of that inquiry.
The getting home safely inquiry was commissioned to address clear and immediate problems. Stakeholders conducted themselves in a cooperative and constructive way throughout the inquiry. Furthermore, it has produced a positive return on the investment of conducting the inquiry and implementing its recommendations. In the financial year 2012-13, 736 workers had compensation claims from the construction
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