Media Release: CFMEU NSW Construction Tuesday 14 February 2023
Perrottet's plan to boost developer profits at workers' expense
Perrottet's plan to revive the NSW Building Code to target workers will do nothing to secure jobs, boost wages, or fix the safety crisis in construction in this state. But the people of NSW can rest assured it will do plenty to protect the profits of big developers by allowing them to steal workers' wages and cut corners on safety.
Predictably the Liberals and the MBA trot out the same old tired, visionless policies of attacking workers and unions while giving a free pass to developers. Construction workers and the CFMEU weren’t “thugs” when the Liberal Government and MBA looked to us to get the NSW economy through Covid.
People in NSW deserve a Government that invests in roads, hospital, schools and that can make a real difference to the massive burden of cost of living and raise the standards of living.
People are doing it tough with continued interest rates rises, squeeze on rental properties, fuel, tolls and energy price hikes. Construction workers who work day and night building this State deserve better than the continued attacks on their workplace rights and entitlements.
The NSW Government and the Labor Opposition should focus on the real things that matter to working men and women rather than empty rhetoric and bureaucratic red tape designed to suppress wages and conditions. By continuing their ideological war on workers, the MBA continue to highlight their irrelevancy.
The CFMEU in NSW will continue to fight on behalf of its members for decent safety, wages and conditions whoever is in power.
The Liberals federally spent millions of dollars in taxpayer money to attack workers and unions, and the Australian people saw through their anti-union scare campaign at the election. NSW Construction workers will likewise vote with their feet against Perrottet.
Perrottet wants to enforce a system where workers and unions face million-dollar fines for standing up for safety or demanding fair pay, while the companies that kill workers and destroy families get away with literal murder. Under the discredited ABCC safety went backwards on NSW construction sites. That's what happens when you have an industry regulator that is more worried about swearing on building sites than workers being killed and maimed.
There is nothing in today's announcement about enforcing safety standards on construction sites or increasing fines for builders that put workers' lives at risk. There is nothing about ensuring workers and subcontractors get paid for the work they do, at a time when big developers owe millions in unpaid invoices to subbies.
It is a shameful and cynical ploy by Perrottet, Tudehope and Kean to boost their political stocks by trashing workers. The people of NSW will see through it.
Darren Greenfield, CFMEU NSW Construction Secretary
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