Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:41): (620) My question is again for the Minister for Housing. Minister, in response to my first question you indicated you had sought and received assurances about safety on the sites with respect to the CFMEU, and I ask a simple question –

Members interjecting.

David DAVIS: With respect, you talked about a whole range of points. Who provided those assurances to you, Minister?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:41): Mr Davis, your question – and you might want to go back to what it was that you asked me specifically – did not actually specify the question of safety as a standalone component of your question.

Members interjecting.

Harriet SHING: If you want to talk about safety, Mr Davis, then let us talk about safety, because we know all too well that the four most dangerous workplace sectors in Victoria, where we see fatalities, serious injuries and near misses, are agriculture, mining, construction and roads.

David Davis interjected.

Harriet SHING: No, no, no. Your question refers to safety. So when we are talking about safety on worksites, I want to be really, really clear about the importance of making sure that safe systems of work –

David Davis: On a point of order, Deputy President, my question was a very simple one, about the assurances that she said she had received. Who provided those assurances? Who?

Michael Galea: On the point of order, Deputy President, I believe the minister is plainly being relevant to the question.

Georgie Crozier: Further to the point of order, Deputy President, Mr Davis’s question was very specific in reference to his first question, and I would ask you to bring the minister back to that direct response required for Mr Davis.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: As you know, I cannot direct the minister how to answer, but I would ask the minister to be responsive.

Harriet SHING: So, Mr Davis, you asked a question about safety.

David Davis: And the first question.

Harriet SHING: I have answered the first question.

Members interjecting.

Harriet SHING: Mr Davis, if you are going to conflate the right of workers to have a safe workplace –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Can we have some silence, thank you.

Harriet SHING: If you are going to conflate the right of workers, at law, to have a safe workplace, to go to work and to come home without injury – if you are going to conflate those issues, then what that says about you is that you are not prepared to countenance any system of accountability around people’s right to go to work and not die. Mr Davis, we are talking about one of the four most dangerous sectors in Victoria, which is where we see a significant concentration of fatalities, of serious injuries and of near misses.

David Davis: On a point of order, Deputy President, the minister is verballing me. I used the words in the first question ‘threatening, corrupt, violent and illegal behaviour’. That is about safety. Threatening behaviour and violent behaviour onsite is about safety. The minister might not want to recognise that threats by CFMEU members onsite are about safety. Well, I do, and I take offence at the minister suggesting that we do not.

Harriet SHING: On the point of order, Deputy President, I would ask that you actually go back to Hansard and Mr Davis’s question and his specific reference to safety, and I would ask that you give consideration to that in relation to Mr Davis’s concerns as he has just raised them.

Georgie Crozier: Further on the point of order, Deputy President, the minister is not answering the question. Mr Davis referenced his first question, which went to the issue around corrupt, violent and illegal behaviour, which is not safe.

Members interjecting.

Georgie Crozier: No, in the answer the minister gave she mentioned safety. That is all Mr Davis was referring to in his follow-up question around the assurances, which she is refusing to answer. I would ask you to bring her back to the specifics of Mr Davis’s question.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: As you know, I cannot instruct the minister how to answer. I do ask the minister to be relevant to Mr Davis’s question. The minister has 39 seconds to go.

Harriet SHING: Thank you, Deputy President. Mr Davis, when a provisional improvement notice is issued around a legitimate workplace safety concern, that is a matter for safety.

Members interjecting.

Harriet SHING: Mr Davis, when a matter goes to WorkSafe for investigation –

Lizzie Blandthorn: On a point of order, Deputy President, the interjections are such that it is impossible for anybody to make a contribution and actually be heard, so I would ask that you bring the house to order.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I was just thinking the same myself. We only have 22 seconds to go of this question, so if the minister could continue without assistance.

Harriet SHING: Thank you, Deputy President. Mr Davis, if you do not believe that there should be any means for workers to raise issues of safety in one of the four most dangerous work sectors in the state, then that is a reflection on your view –

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, Deputy President, the minister is verballing Mr Davis, and she knows what she is doing. I would ask you to bring her back to answering the question. If she has not got the assurances, then she should just tell the house.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The government is right; it is not a point of order. We have 9 seconds to go. I would ask the minister not to be so inviting of the opposition to call any more points of order. Could the minister just give her answer in the remaining 9 seconds.

Harriet SHING: Mr Davis, if you do not believe in safe systems of work, then have the guts to stand up and say so.

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:48): I notice that in the minister’s response to my very simple question – ‘Who provided the assurances to you?’ – she refused to say who that person was. In response to the minister’s non-answer I ask –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: It is the member’s supplementary. Can we please have some quiet while he asks it.

David DAVIS: In your first question you indicated you had sought and received assurances. You will not tell us from whom, and I ask therefore: were they in writing or just flimsy verbal assurances?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:49): Speaking of flimsy, Mr Davis, speaking of flimsy. Mr Davis, I make it a matter of personal interest, which I see as a responsibility in this portfolio, that wherever I go to a project that is being delivered under the Big Housing Build and under the Social Housing Growth Fund, being delivered by community housing providers, being delivered in partnership with the Commonwealth, being delivered in partnership with consortia, being delivered in partnership with local councils and the work on the ground to make sure that people have the housing that they need, that they deserve and that in fact should be provided to them – which we are funding in record volumes – that I ask them about how these projects have gone and about how their workforce has been encouraged and supported in doing the work that they do. Mr Davis, that is the business of the portfolio. Now, it is something you probably would not understand because it has been quite some time since you botched health, yet I will continue to do that work – (Time expired)

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:50): I move:

That the minister’s non-answer be taken into account on the next day of meeting.

Members interjecting.

Michael Galea: On a point of order, Deputy President, Mr Davis did not actually ask for the minister’s answer to be taken into account. He added his own elaborations to that.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I thought that Mr Davis had asked for the minister’s answer to be taken into account on the next day of sitting. Would you like to repeat what you want, Mr Davis, please?

David DAVIS: I move:

That the minister’s answers be taken into account on the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to.