Senator Eric Abetz

Labor Senators on the Senate Committee examining the abolition of the ABCC have taken a leaf out of Bill Shorten’s ‘hear no evil’ book by blocking Coalition attempts to have former Australian Building and Construction Commissioner John Lloyd appear before a Senate Committee in Melbourne today.

“Mr Lloyd made a valuable contribution to the nation as the Commissioner and has a unique insight into the operations of the ABCC and on the impact that Labor’s changes would have on the sector,” Senator Abetz said.

Senator Abetz: The Craig Thompson matter seems to lumber on in all sorts of directions. Each time Labor tries to explain things, things simply get worse for them. Bill Shorten yesterday tried to obfuscate and say that the emails had been made available on December the 9^th when Parliament was sitting. Well the Parliament wasn’t sitting on December the 9^th. What we did get on notice was answers indicating that there had been emails. What Bill Shorten was at pains to avoid was the actual content of the emails that we were never told about. If these emails were so benign, if they were such old news, why was it that Fair Work Australia blocked access to those emails and required my office to appeal to the Information Commissioner to actually get access to these emails? Mr Shorten might like to explain that. What those emails show is that the head of the Crime Squad in NSW rang, not once, not twice, but numerous times to the Manager of Fair Work Australia only to not only have his phone call returned, reducing the head of the Crime Squad to emailing the Manager of Fair Work Australia pleading with him to return his phone calls. That, I think indicates that this matter was not necessarily top of mind for Fair Work Australia to put it mildly. We also have the other email which highlights once again that all that this Labor Government is interested in is the spin and not the substance. What we have is a person in Senator Evans’ office concerned about the media management of the Craig Thompson issue not the administrative management of the issue and that of course is the ultimate responsibility of the Minister. The other thing Labor needs to answer today is how did the Government’s Dirt Unit come into possession of the private telephone calls of Kate Jackson? Senator Conroy can deny that he used his Communications Ministry for that purpose and I accept that on face value but what the Government needs to explain is, how did they get these telephone numbers. That is a matter of great seriousness that Labor needs to answer.

Kieran Gilbert: First though our guest this morning on the program is the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and the Shadow Workplace Relations Minister, Senator Eric Abetz, Senator good morning to you.

Senator Abetz: Good Morning, good to be on the program.

In the wake of stinging criticism of Australia’s industrial relations system and workplace culture from Toyota Australia President and Chief Executive, Max Yasuda, the newly installed Industry Minister Greg Combet simply chooses to bury his head in the sand rather than face up to some basic home truths.

A story in today’s Australian Financial Review attributes comments to Mr Yasuda on the impediment of workplace inflexibility and a workplace culture rife with underperformance, including absenteeism rates as high as 30 per cent in some parts of Toyota Australia’s plant.