The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has highlighted the Coalition’s policy plan to resurrect the ABCC, as Tony Abbott’s failure to grasp the Australian electorate’s rejection in 2007 of the Coalition’s anti-worker ideology.
“The ABCC was one of the most extreme elements of the Howard Government’s ideological industrial laws, which culminated with WorkChoices,” ETU assistant national secretary Allen Hicks said.
“Both the ABCC and WorkChoices were overwhelmingly rejected by the Australian people in 2007.”
“If Tony Abbott wants to resurrect the ABCC — a discriminatory body which stripped certain workers of basic legal rights simply because they worked in construction — then what guarantee is there that other elements of the ‘dead, buried and cremated’ WorkChoices laws are not going to return?” said Mr Hicks.
The ETU believe that while Tony Abbott has promised one million new jobs in five years, his pledge flies in the face of his promises to slash 20,000 jobs in the public sector.
“The recent experiences in Queensland and New South Wales of newly- elected Coalition governments has been of massive cuts to jobs, community services and workplace rights,” Mr Hicks said.
“Tony Abbott’s previous commitments to retain and expand the 457 visa scheme — which allows employers to bring in cheap, easily exploited labour from overseas — also suggest that Australian workers are likely to be the biggest losers if Tony Abbott is elected.”
