Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Qld: Workplace Safety Under Attack

Queensland's notorious Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie will have to wait a little longer to pass his controversial laws to prevent unions from immediately entering work sites.

The proposed changes will force unions to give 24 hours notice before they can set foot on a Queensland work site if they believe there is a Work Health and Safety Act breach.

The debate on Tuesday night was cut short, following a rambling address by Mr Bleijie to the Parliament which lasted more than half an hour.

During his speech, he warned the changes were necessary to stop union officials abusing a “loophole” to enter workplaces without “appropriate notice”.

“If anyone’s going to shut a work site down in Queensland, it’s going to be a Queensland workplace health and safety inspector, not militant union thugs,” he said.

But Labor’s Curtis Pitt slammed the laws as an “ideological attack on working men and women” and said the changes represented an “attack on workers”, as well as union representatives.

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