Tuesday, July 20, 2010

ABCC: Ark Tribe hearing protests

A trial has resumed in Adelaide of a construction worker charged under federal industrial laws.

There was a protest outside Adelaide Magistrates Court as the case resumed after a month-long adjournment.

Hundreds of unionists offered vocal support for Ark Tribe, who is charged with failing to answer questions about a stopwork meeting at a building site.

The protesters marched from the courts to the Australian Building and Construction Commission premises.

CFMEU secretary Dave Noonan says he hopes the message that laws should be scrapped will get through during the federal election campaign.

"We say that it's a totally unsatisfactory state of affairs in a democratic country that a worker could be imprisoned for standing up for their rights in this way," he said. "Tony Abbott boasts about the fact that he created these laws, Mr Abbott supports workers being fined and imprisoned for standing up for their rights."

Inside the hearing, a Commission inspector Seamus Flynn was in the witness stand.

He was cross-examined by Tribe's lawyer about his authority to investigate the stopwork meeting held at a Flinders University work site in 2008.

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