Crikey‘s Bernard Keane reminds us that the Opposition’s (and the media’s) purported concern for endangered workers is a recent phenomenon:
[The Howard Government] severely limit[ed] the circumstances in which union officials could act on safety issues, or in which construction workers could take industrial action over safety issues. ¶ The only problem was that safety was not merely a pretext for union activity. Construction is up with road transport and mining as one of the most dangerous occupations in the country. And following the imposition of Andrews’ legislation and the extension of the building industry code, deaths in the constructions industry increased massively, from 3.14 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2004 to 3.86 in 2005, 5.6 in 2006, 4.48 in 2007 and 4.27 in 2008. [...] ¶ Despite clear warnings to the Minister that the changes would endanger safety, there was no media outrage or claims of a debacle. Indeed, in mid-2007 The Australian was lauding the Government’s reforms. The only mention of safety by The Oz was to note that fewer days had been lost due to “abuse of occupational health and safety issues”. More dead workers didn’t get a mention.
Dangerous industries need strong unions — not WorkChoices II. [prev]