Repeal the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005
- Target:
- To the Honourable Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives assembled in Parliament
- Region:
- Australia
Ark Tribe is a construction worker from South Australia facing six months in jail. He has been charged with not attending an interview with the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
Ark was working on the Flinders University site in Adelaide. Conditions were so bad that workers drew up a petition calling for safety improvements, on a handtowel. It took an intervention by the union and the state government safety regulator to get the most pressing problems fixed and finally, after several days, things began to get back on track.
One by one workers from the site were called before the ABCC. The penalties for those who don't cooperate with ABCC investigations are frightening - fines of up to $22,000 for things like stopping work to make sure workers are safe and jail for up to 6 months if you don't answer their questions.
Even the police don't have the powers the ABCC have. In Ark's words, "If I've done something wrong, I'm prepared to cop it, but I won't be treated unfairly." We need to get the Rudd Labor Government to get rid of these laws, before another construction worker faces jail.
To the Honourable Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives assembled in Parliament:
This petition of certain citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House their strong protest against the unfair industrial laws applying in the building and construction industry which:-
• deny employees in that industry basic democratic and work rights
• undermine the safety and conditions of the thousands of hard-working Australians in the industry
• has made workers the target of court prosecutions, fines and jailing by the politically motivated office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner
Your petitioners therefore ask the House to:-
• immediately repeal the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (Cth),
• abolish the ABCC; and
• to enact fair and just legislation which also ensures that construction workers have the same rights and are subject to the same industrial laws as every other Australian worker.
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The Repeal the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 petition to To the Honourable Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives assembled in Parliament was written by FREE AUSTRALIA PARTY and is in the category Unions at GoPetition.