Greens Member for Melbourne and industrial relations spokesperson Adam Bandt MP today said the government is on a hiding to nothing after the Senate’s rejection of two key parts of its industrial relations agenda yesterday. The Senate voted down the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment Bill 2014 for a second time and the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill 2013.
“The Senate is standing up for democracy and saying we won’t have separate penalties for unions and fewer rights for people who work in the construction industry,” Mr Bandt said.
"The Greens voted down the Registered Organisations bill down for a second time because trade unions and employer associations are already highly regulated and subject to standards that most companies would find very rigorous.”
"This bill was just one part of the Coalition’s broader attack on people’s rights at work and nothing to do with holding unions to the same standards as companies.”
"The day that the Coalition forces all companies to publish their accounts online and democratically elect their managing directors in a secret ballot is the day I’ll believe they want to treat trade unions and corporations equally."
Greens Senator for Victoria Janet Rice said: “This is insanity. The government has done the same thing twice and seemed to have expected a different result.”
“It’s about time the government got the message that we won’t accept these attacks on people’s rights at work.”
“If the government wants to go to an election based on attacking people’s rights at work then bring it on.”
Media contact: Adam Pulford, 0429 109 054