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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-02-22 Daily Xml
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Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:01): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector a question regarding the CFMEU activity in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: In recent days, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union was criticised in the media for its negotiations in Victoria that could see basic labourer and traffic control wages—that is, the people who move the stop-go signs—increase by up to around $120,000 a year due to a new workplace agreement to be signed, which includes a significant pay rise, obviously.

The Master Builders Association of South Australia has expressed concern that, if a similar wage hike in our state were to be implemented, it would threaten South Australia's construction industry and economic rating and indeed its very viability. When referring to Victoria's construction industry, the CEO of Master Builders SA stated:

Their high-volume, high-cost model has no place in South Australia. It is the height of arrogance to try to replicate a failed system in other states...The CFMEU should be run by someone based in South Australia to understand the differences that it has to other states.

My question to the minister is simply: will the state government assure South Australia's construction industry stakeholders and the general public that it will not allow standover tactics to be used as a negotiating tactic by strong unions in order to achieve excessive wage decisions, as we are seeing in Victoria?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:03): I thank the honourable member for his question. I have said before and I am happy to repeat it: we expect all players in the industrial relations system to abide by the rules and the laws that govern those systems. For private sector industrial relations, it is the commonwealth which has responsibility for industrial relations systems and negotiations.

Certainly, I think it is fair to say that South Australia has a comparatively enviable harmonious industrial relations landscape, and we expect that to continue. The players in South Australia have been mature and pragmatic and it has brought about good results for South Australians, and there is no reason that won't continue, and that is exactly what we expect to happen.

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