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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-07-06 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Incolink

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:09): My question is again to the Premier. Has the Premier taken any steps to protect the South Australian construction industry from the rollout of John Setka's Incolink scheme and, if not, why not? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr COWDREY: The opposition has been advised that the CFMEU is ramping up operations in South Australia to pressure businesses to swap balances from the BIRST fund to the CFMEU's preferred Incolink scheme. On 1 June, in response to a question in this house, the Premier stated that there were various acts, powers and functions that exist that he would willingly deploy should the need arise.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:10): I thank the shadow treasurer for his question. As I have stated previously, this is something that the government is actively observing, and we have been engaged with industry about. The line of questions often from the opposition on this particular matter have a degree of inconsistency about them, though. On one hand they inquire, 'Has the Premier ever met with John Setka?' as though it would be a bad outcome if that had occurred—and, for the record, I haven't met with John Setka—but then they ask for me to make representations to the CFMEU to drive an outcome, which is hard to do without actually meeting John Setka. It's hard to know—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Hartley!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: It is hard to know what the opposition actually wants from the government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Morialta!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hartley is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —so we will not waste our time and energy trying to understand what it is the opposition are particularly advocating for. Their position seems to be shapeshifting—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —on a regular basis. What the government is doing is what we have done since we have been elected to office and what we did prior to being elected to office, and that is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —engaging proactively with the Master Builders Association. I had a conversation with Will Frogley, the CEO of the Master Builders Association, I think it was around about 2½ weeks ago on the matter. I understand, and I don't think he would mind me saying, that the Master Builders themselves have been seeking to engage with the CFMEU, which I would encourage. We remain committed to stand at the ready to make any interventions that may be available to us, and there are questions about what ones those might be, given that the industrial relations legal framework, the industrial relations legislative framework, has changed substantially since referral of powers back prior to WorkChoices.

Mr Cowdrey interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton is warned.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: This is a government that is thoroughly engaged with industry, and people would be well familiar with that because only a couple of weeks ago the Treasurer and I stood up at a press conference side by side with Will Frogley, the CEO of the Master Builders, who was glowingly complimentary of the relationship the MBA has had with this government because of the things that we have delivered for their industry: abolition of stamp duty on first-home builds here in South Australia, a policy the MBA have been advocating for ever—the MBA have been advocating for the Born to Build program for a long period of time, something they got absolutely nowhere on with the former government; and the building of technical colleges in our high schools to make sure that we are providing young people a pathway to be able to get trades while at school that will assist the supply of labour that industry needs.

Every single step of the way this government isn't just talking to the MBA; we are actually delivering in such a way that has a positive impact on what is an exceptionally important industry in our state, as we have a housing shortage that we want to address with a lot more stock coming into the system. This is not a case of the government talking the talk; this is a government that is walking the walk when it comes to working with the MBA.

We continue to deliver for that industry because we believe in the people who work in it. I might add that the relationship that the government has with the MBA, we equally value with the trade union movement. Just yesterday, we had a press conference where the government was announcing its commitment to legislative reform around—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: Industrial manslaughter.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —industrial manslaughter, thank you to the member for Hartley—again, a policy that we have worked on with both industry and the union movement to deliver better outcomes to people who work in the industry.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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