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This cannot be said often enough. People do not trust Prime Minister Albanese. Why?

Labor conjures up a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election where it’s worried about losing a government MP.

Labor knows that bracket creep, a stealth tax, will increase taxes much more than the headline grabbing cut.

Labor’s fuel excise increase will inflate prices at the pump. Inflation will offset the tax cut. Worse still, the excise increase will filter through the food chain to push up grocery prices across Australia.

Lib-Lab energy policies are driving skyrocketing electricity prices that will soon bury the cuts and drive up food and cost-of-living.

PM Albanese is deceptively grabbing news headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.

Transcript

Labor conjures up a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP. Yet Labor knows bracket creep will soon increase taxes much more than the headline-grabbing cut. Understandably, to many people getting $16.70 back from the government that’s a lot of money. Yet the same people will lose it, and much more very quickly, to bracket creep, a stealth tax. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.

Labor conjures a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP. Yet Labor’s petrol and diesel excise increase will soon increase fuel prices and inflation, offsetting the tax cuts. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.

Labor conjures a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP. The petrol and diesel excise will filter through the food chain to raise grocery prices in every food store in the country, offsetting the tax cuts. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.

Labor conjures a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP, yet Labor and Liberal energy policies are driving skyrocketing electricity prices that will soon bury the cuts. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.

Labor conjures a $16.70 increase in tax cuts to grab headlines before the Dunkley by-election, where it’s worried about losing a government MP, yet higher electricity costs are raising grocery prices that will soon bury the cuts. The Prime Minister deceptively grabs headlines. People cannot trust Prime Minister Albanese.

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I thank Senator Hume for her matter of public importance and support it.

Here’s Anthony Albanese only a couple of weeks ago repeating a promise he took to the election. How can we trust anything he says?

I’m putting it on the record that this government’s legislative processes are compromised. There are numerous examples of shoddy and rushed Bills being bulldozed through into legislation.

I ask here for a simple review, a chance to hasten slowly and ensure that one such piece of rushed, yet vital legislation, has the opportunity to be done correctly.

Minister Watt could not even grasp the concept of ‘independent’ review. Labor is the party of control.

Transcript

Senator ROBERTS: Minister, constituents lack confidence in Labor when it comes to security, especially after the last few weeks. So I’m wondering whether or not you will be supporting my amendment to do a simple review of the legislation, especially the amendments. If not, what is the problem?

I remind the Senate that last week’s highly significant Water Amendment (Restoring Our Rivers) Bill 2023 saw 31 amendments from the government to its own legislation in the House of Reps plus 20 amendments in the Senate. There was a total of 51 government amendments to its own bill, and those from the crossbenches and the Liberals brought them to 69. Minister Burke has been falsely creating the dishonest label ‘closing loopholes’ to hide the Hunter mining and energy union’s complicity in aiding some labour hire firms in Australia’s largest-ever wage theft worth billions of dollars. We’re told that the Greens oppose the Nature Repair Market Bill 2023. They said so themselves just last week. Yet the Greens now support it because Labor has apparently agreed to allow the Greens to move amendments to the EPBC Act. The Greens support Labor’s disastrous Nature Repair Bill apparently in return for Labor’s support for disastrous Greens amendments to an existing law not before the Senate.

The CHAIR: Senator McKim, a point of order?

Senator McKim: It’s a point of order on relevance, Chair. The bill that Senator Roberts is referring to is actually not the bill that is currently before the Senate.

The CHAIR: We do allow some latitude, although I do take the point. I think Senator Roberts is trying to underpin his arguments for a review. Senator Roberts, please keep it to the point.

Senator ROBERTS: I’m pleased you could see that, Chair. That’s exactly what I was doing. The government has a very shoddy reputation and is lacking credibility for its legislation that’s been rushed and bullied and bulldozed into this place from the start of its term. So, Minister, I ask whether or not you’ll be supporting our amendment for a simple review of the legislation.

Senator WATT (Queensland—Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Minister for Emergency Management): Thanks Senator Roberts. No, we won’t be supporting the amendment putting forward a review. As I made it clear earlier in this debate, we are modelling this regime on the existing high-risk terrorist offenders regime. So we have some confidence in its ability to work, given it’s been based on a regime that already exists. In addition—I don’t know if you were here, Senator Roberts, when I mentioned this before—one of the amendments that we’ve tabled, clause 395.49, requires the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs to deliver an annual report about the operation of this regime. That is intended to give a level of transparency going forward to how this regime is operating, and we think it is an adequate measure to ensure that there is transparency in the system.

Senator ROBERTS: I acknowledge that the legislation will have a ministerial report, but we are suggesting an independent review, not a government report.

Senator WATT: Thanks, Senator Roberts. I can’t really elaborate on my previous answer.

The Albanese government is doing dodgy deals behind the scenes with mates and donors, letting down workers while driving up the cost of living. Labor is horse-trading behind our backs with the Greens and Teals to get the numbers to fast track its Bills through the Senate without conventional review.

It’s obvious the Albanese government in the Senate is a Labor-Greens-Teal coalition that is repeatedly protecting itself from scrutiny, gags debate on key legislation and is doing dodgy deals to push the Greens’ destructive policies through parliament.

This is hurting Australians and taking our country backwards.

No wonder this government is being slammed in the polls. The people didn’t vote for this coalition with its nation-killing agenda. The tail is wagging the dog.

Transcript

As a servant to the people of Queensland and Australia, I listen to people from across our country. Many are hurting because of the skyrocketing cost of living due to record
immigration, with 2.3 million people in Australia on visas—there are 100,000 student beds, yet the Albanese government issued a record 687,000 student visas in one year—as well as skyrocketing house prices, with foreign owners buying and locking up homes; green jackboots suppressing builders and suppliers; and ESG choking companies. People in Gladstone, Bundaberg and other regional towns and cities are living in cars, in caravans, in tents and under bridges. There are skyrocketing rental rates, if people can find a rental. High inflation is destroying wealth and being a tax—inflation due to printing money and splashing cash and to supply side restrictions.

There are high energy prices, due to solar and wind. All countries with high proportions of solar and wind have very high electricity prices. Plus there’ll be the future $60 billion in additional costs for transmission lines to hook the solar and wind into the grid that has not been budgeted for.

One Nation raises solutions to meet people’s basic needs, like cutting immigration to zero, net; ending foreign ownership of property; ending net zero electricity policies; stopping endless money-printing and cash-splashes. Labor responds with ridicule, showing contempt for people’s needs. This destroys confidence in the government.

We’re on a highway to hell because Anthony Albanese has not grown into the prime ministership. He still acts as though selfies, music-band T-shirts and empty symbols are substitutes for thoughtful governance and hard work. They’re not.

In proposing his recent Voice referendum, his arguments were shallow and condescending. He offered only a vibe and an emotion. His government tried to con the people. This is not leadership; it’s floundering. This is not governance—

The Acting Deputy President (Senator Chandler): Order, Senator Roberts. Senator Urquhart, on a point of order?

Senator Urquhart: I think the senator is actually impugning by saying what he said about the Prime Minister, and I would ask him to withdraw that.

The Acting Deputy President: Senator Roberts, perhaps if you could clarify your comments and then continue your remarks, noting the point of order that we’ve heard?

Certainly. I said that his government has tried to con the people, not him.

The Acting Deputy President: Please continue, Senator Roberts.

This is not leadership; it’s floundering. This is not governance; it’s deceitful irresponsibility. This is not transparency and consultation; it’s dodging scrutiny. This destroys confidence in the
government. Look at their legislation processes that are bankrupt. Last week’s water amendment bill entered the House of Representatives with 31 amendments, from the government; plus 20 amendments in the Senate, from the government—a total of 51 government amendments to its own bill—plus crossbenchers’ and Liberals’ amendments, for a total of 69 amendments. Consultation? Hah!

The Identity Verification Services Bill 2023 was suddenly sprung on the Senate in a deal between the globalists in Labor and the globalists in the Liberals. It includes provisions for facial recognition of every Australian 16 years or older going about their everyday life, including in travel, using ATMs, in supermarkets for shopping, driving their car, in financial services—everything. It’s a basis for Labor’s digital identity bill that they rushed into the Senate—again, hiding from scrutiny. They were trying to rush the IR bill next, then delaying passage of what Labor said were four urgent schedules.

There was Minister Burke falsely creating the dishonest label ‘closing loopholes’ to hide the Hunter Mining and Energy Union’s complicity in aiding some labour hire firms in Australia’s largest-ever wage theft, worth billions of dollars; protecting the Fair Work Commission for blatant breaches of law in approving the Mining and Energy Union enterprise agreements enabling systemic wage theft; protecting the Fair Work Ombudsman for using a fraudulent document covering up the Mining and Energy Union’s enterprise agreement systemic wage theft. They’re throwing workers to the wolves and hiding mates and donors from scrutiny.
There’s the nature repair bill—the arrogance! The Greens stated they were opposed, clearly. Yet the Greens now support the bill because Labor agreed to allow the Greens to move amendments to the EPBC Act. The Greens support Labor’s disastrous bill in return for Labor’s support for the disastrous Greens amendments to an existing law that is not before the Senate—without debate. They’re hiding political mates and bosses from scrutiny.

During deceitful COVID mismanagement, Liberal and Labor governments used Labor state premiers to steal basic human rights and freedoms. The Australian Bureau of Statistics data confirms that COVID injections killed tens of thousands of people—homicide! Livelihoods and homes were lost due to injection mandates. Health bureaucrats, with plenty to hide, dig in. And what does Labor do? It covers up, and that makes them complicit. Prime Minister Albanese breaks his royal commission promise to instead propose a whitewash to cover up the Labor states’ mismanagement and deceit—hiding political mates from scrutiny.
In practice, the Albanese Labor government seeks to suppress, silence and control. That’s why people have lost confidence in Prime Minister Albanese and his government. Remember the Rudd slide and the Gillard slide? After just 18 months, the media is already referring to the even steeper Albanese slide. That’s why the people have lost confidence in this government

Former terrorist Tedros Ghebreyesus will not fire 83 WHO staff engaged in abuse including rape and forced abortions, with one victim 13, claiming rape and forced abortion do not violate WHO’s policies because the victims were not receiving WHO aid.

Transcript

Last year the Albanese government continued the Morrison government’s campaign to sign away Australian sovereignty to the United Nations World Health Organization, the WHO. Despite the attempt failing, WHO’s power grab is ongoing.  

The WHO is not independent. Their owners are corporate donors who contribute most of the WHO budget. WHO’s current sugar daddy is Bill Gates, who has made billions out of his investment in the same vaccines that WHO promotes. Gates bought the WHO and they now recommend his products. It is that simple.  

The head of the WHO is Tedros Ghebreyesus, who was previously the health minister of a terrorist organisation called the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and used international aid to buy power and punish his enemies. The regions of Ethiopia that Tedros starved of medical supplies suffered disastrous cholera epidemics in 2006, 2009 and 2011. Independent investigators found Tedros was ‘fully complicit in the terrible suffering and dying that continues to spread in East Africa.’ He’s a killer. WHO is rotting from the head.

Last week, Associated Press reported on the WHO sex crimes scandal, where WHO staffers sexually exploited girls and women during the Congo’s recent Ebola outbreak—inhuman. At least 83 WHO staff engaged in abuse, including rape and forced abortions, with victims as young as 13. WHO refused to fire the perpetrators, using the absurd argument that their actions didn’t violate WHO’s sexual exploitation practice policies because the victims were not receiving WHO aid; the raping part is okay with Tedros. This the person who heads an organisation that many in government and academia want to elevate above the Australian parliament. 

One Nation rejects the UN-WHO power grab and will defend Australia’s sovereignty. So should you all. 

The Queensland Labor Government’s decision to add an extra fine to unjabbed teachers is vindictive and cruel. It’s also about political donations and Labor taking care of their mates.

The Labor-aligned Queensland Teachers Union was nowhere to be seen when mandates were in effect and teachers were stood down without pay for more than half a year. The Red Union was different. They fought against mandates and teachers flocked to them and ended their memberships to the QTU who donates to the Labor party.

This fine was a move to punish unjabbed teachers who didn’t stay with the Labor-aligned QTU when they didn’t stand up for workers’ rights. If you ever thought Labor was the party for the worker, they certainly aren’t now.

Transcript

Rowan Dean
Well, as I mentioned at the start of the show, we’ve seen so many conventions and rights, democratic rights tossed aside all in the name of public health. The sad reality is that it isn’t over. We learned today, we learned last night actually that the Queensland Government is planning to dock the pay of Queensland teachers who have decided not to get vaccinated.

00:26
Rowan Dean
And the Federal Government seems fairly indifferent to what’s going on as well.

00:32
Anika Wells
Ultimately I think everyone has the right to make a choice about whether or not to get vaccine. But no one has the right to be free from the consequences of that choice. And these have been set out a long, long time coming. And they’ve had their pay docked, you know, for the six months running up to this. So this isn’t a surprise and it’s something that the Queensland Government going to have to work through with this very small pocket of teachers, given 99% are actually vaccinated.

00:56
Rowan Dean
A very small pocket of people we’re humiliating, demonizing and punishing. And here I was thinking labor was supposed to represent the workers. Hmm. Joining me now is One Nation Senator for Queensland, Malcolm Roberts. Great to see you, Malcolm. How are you?

01:15
Malcolm Roberts
I’m very well, thanks, Rowan. How are you? It’s good to be here.

01:17
Rowan Dean
Good mte, good. Listen, I got all these emails yesterday from several teachers, their families and other people who are absolutely livid with anger. You know, these are human beings. They’ve got feelings, they’ve got families. They’re being treated like dirt and scum, even though we know that, according to the CDC, the Center for Disease Control itself in the US, there’s no need.

01:42
Rowan Dean
They’ve now announced there’s no need to distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated. Personally, I wonder whether there ever was. Malcolm Roberts, what did you make of this news and how vindictive can a government be?

02:01
Malcolm Roberts
The real issue here is about political donations and about punishment. They’re the three words to remember. Now, I’ve been dealing with a teacher who’s been fighting for restitution for the teachers for a year and a half now. Sorry, sorry for half a year, because they were only cut on December 17th. But she’s been very strong. And so I called her up today and she pointed for four points with regard to punishment.

02:27
Malcolm Roberts
She said, first of all, they’ve been penalized for losing seven months worth of work because they were suspended due to not complying with the vaccine or the injection mandates, not misconduct, suspended due to noncompliance. They lost their pay for seven months. They lost their homes, marriages broke up, distressed people making decisions that were not good and sometimes causing lots of problems and heartaches.

02:52
Malcolm Roberts
Suicides. She’s personally had to talk four people out of suicide. Now after, if that’s not enough, they’ve been penalized for serious misconduct. So just January 23rd, which is only seven months ago, they were penalized, they were suspended, they were told, because noncompliance. Now they’re being accused of serious misconduct. Then the third thing is that some of these people have been living in state education, in state homes, and so they’ve been paying rent to the state government.

03:22
Malcolm Roberts
The state government tossed them out, tossed them out. And some of them couldn’t get their furniture out in time, were charged rent because the furniture was still in the place. One woman was denied the right to even access the furniture in her house. She had to pay someone to get it out for her. The fourth thing is they have now been labeled with this:

03:41
Malcolm Roberts
Quote “any further reprimand could lead to terminations.” This is belting them. It’s not just humiliating them. It’s belting them. This woman has been prevented from doing the work she loves for seven months.

03:56
Rowan Dean
Exactly. Malcolm, these are teachers. These are the people we rely upon to educate our young. To show. To show our children the ways of behavior, the values to take forward in life, positivity, creativity, inspiration, education. These are the people we rely on to bring those values to our children. I tell you, the sheer vindictiveness is there a more nasty, vicious government than the Palaszczuk government?

04:32
Rowan Dean
We saw Dan Andrews. He’s just a thug. We saw all the police brutality, throwing people to the ground, pepper spraying them and all this stuff. But we have this nasty, vindictive Palaszczuk government that seemed to want to hurt and punish anyone who disagrees with them. Is that an unfair comment?

04:51
Malcolm Roberts
You’re exactly right. If a private employer or a public company were doing this wrong, the Queensland Government would have been down on them like a ton of bricks. Now these are doing it. It’s bastardry at its worst, but there’s a reason why they’re doing it. The teachers believe that it’s got something to do with the fact that the Red Union, I think it’s called the teachers professional Association of Queensland a new Union has been making very great increases in numbers in the last few years and the Queensland Teachers Union is scared of that increase.

05:20
Malcolm Roberts
The Queensland Teachers Union has lost a lot of members. Now the Queensland Teachers Union is close to the ALP state government and they had d large sums of money from teachers dues to the Labor Party for their for their campaigns. Now all of a sudden they’re looking at membership drops and the Teachers Professional Association of Queensland, the Red Union, is taking over.

05:41
Malcolm Roberts
And so when the vaccine mandate came along, the injection mandate came along the QTU the Queensland Teachers Union, abandoned these workers, abandoned these teachers and the red union saw them flocking to them because the red unions stood with them side by side and took them,

05:59
Rowan Dean
Fascinating

06:00
Malcolm Roberts
Defended these people, supported them and that’s what’s going on now. We’ve got an industrial relations amendment bill coming in that’s going to make it difficult for the red union to get more members. This is about labor punishing people who dared to join the Red Union.

06:15
Rowan Dean
Malcolm Roberts, political donations. You’re 100% spot on there to point to the Machiavellian maneuvers behind it. Great to speak to you. Thanks so much for speaking up for those teachers and we’ll chat again soon. Thank you so much.

Yesterday, Joel Fitzgibbon stepped down as the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources. This seismic decision is traced back to the 2019 election when One Nation’s Stuart Bonds won close to 22% of the vote causing Joel’s first preference vote to collapse by 14%. The blue collar workers in the Hunter sent a very clear and blunt message to the Labor party – you no longer represent us.

The Labor party have committed to a net-zero 2050 climate policy which means the end to coal and gas use and the end of tens of thousands of mining jobs across Australia. Joel has taken the blue collar workers in the Hunter for granted for the past 24 years, popping his head up before each election while doing nothing to stop the Labor party from slipping into the hands of the cultural elites and inner city Greens.

Stuart Bonds is a miner and the voice of the Hunter Valley. It’s time to elect a representative who will serve the people rather than someone who expects the people to serve him.

Transcript

[Malcolm Roberts]

Hi, I’m Senator Malcolm Roberts, and I’m in our Canberra office on the Senate side of Parliament House. And I’m with Stuart Bonds, our One Nation candidate in the seat of Hunter last election, last year. Stuart, your campaign is still causing tremors around the place.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yeah, yes. Well, it was one of the untold stories, I think, of the last election. And it’s come home to roost with Joel Fitzgibbon. I think it’s shaken him out of bed. And I think it’s, you know, it’s woken him up. Before this, he’s been strong. As soon as the election was finished, he was, bang, he was out there, he was the biggest friend to coal. And I think he’s made too many waves and he’s been pushed out.

[Malcolm Roberts]

It seems strange that he didn’t really care about blue collar workers’ jobs and miners’ jobs in the Hunter until his job was threatened by you.

[Stuart Bonds]

Oh, absolutely. That’s one of the funny things, is that until someone comes for your job, right, you’re happy to sell everybody else out, you know what I mean?

[Malcolm Roberts]

Well, I don’t think you would.

[Stuart Bonds]

No, no, absolutely not. But I mean, you see this with the ABC, that they, they’re hammering the coal miners and then when they get threatened to have their funding cut, it’s the worst thing in the world. I mean, it’s terrible to have people gunning for your job.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And Joel’s now a backbencher. He’s resigned and gone back to the backbench. He was Shadow Agriculture and Resources Minister.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yep.

[Malcolm Roberts]

So if he couldn’t help the Hunter from the front bench, how the hell is he going to do it from the backbench?

[Stuart Bonds]

I have no idea. I mean, if you’re in the prime position, they’re meant to come to you for counsel, and they’re obviously going to Joel and then ignoring him, right? Because everything that he’s saying is the opposite of what the party’s saying.

[Malcolm Roberts]

Yeah, and people who are supposed to be in the Labor Party, are supposed to be from the blue collar, and support the blue collar, but they’ve abandoned Joel in place of the Chardonnay sippers and the latte sippers.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yep.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And we’ve got no real connection with the blue collar worker, the producer in Australia anymore in the Labor Party.

[Stuart Bonds]

No, no, and Joel was one of, if not the last members that were sitting from the Labor Party in a rural area. So they’re really losing their voice. Rural Australia is losing their voice, the hard working coal miners, gas, the oil producers. The miners in general are losing their voice from the Labor Party.

[Malcolm Roberts]

What should he do, mate?

[Stuart Bonds]

He should step down, he should resign. I mean, if he’s going to stand there and have no voice whatsoever, he should put it to a by-election and let people have a choice. Have their voices heard.

[Malcolm Roberts]

And would you stand?

[Stuart Bonds]

Absolutely, I would stand. Because the reason I stood in the first place was Labor’s policies. It was never Fitzgibbon’s policies, it was Labor. And they have not changed their policy. They still want to see the end of mining. Albanese’s on the television today, which I reckon might have been the thing that tipped Fitzgibbon over the edge, was when the scenes of the Biden results come in in America, and he won it, first thing Biden did, 2050, zero net emissions. And Albanese’s seen a crack, and he’s straight in there.

[Malcolm Roberts]

They’ve already got that policy, 2050 net zero.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yep.

[Malcolm Roberts]

So that’s the end of the coal industry.

[Stuart Bonds]

Yeah, I mean, and nobody to this day has come out and told us what a 2050 economy looks like. To this day there is no meat behind the policy.

[Malcolm Roberts]

I can tell you. It’s going back 150 years to without electricity. That’s what it is. Because you won’t have reliable electricity. But in the meantime, we wanna make sure that if there is a by-election, and you’re saying bring it on–

[Stuart Bonds]

We should do it.

[Malcolm Roberts]

That you’re there.

[Stuart Bonds]

We should do it, right now. He should call it now-

[Malcolm Roberts]

I’ll be there. I’ll be there to support you, mate.

[Stuart Bonds]

Excellent.

[Malcolm Roberts]

All the way.

[Stuart Bonds]

Thank you, Malcolm.

Member for the seat of Hunter, Mr Joel Fitzgibbon MP, ought to resign and offer the voters a real choice for representation at a by-election.

Senator Roberts said, “Mr Fitzgibbon’s resignation from the ALP cabinet over climate policy is damming confirmation that Labor no longer represents blue-collar workers.

“He cannot be effective sitting on the back-bench sulking over how Labor have lost their way. Hunter Valley constituents deserve better and he needs to resign.”

In the 2019 election, with a massive 14% swing against Labor, the seat of Hunter became a truly marginal seat for the first time in its 109-year history.

“Mr Fitzgibbon only started caring about blue-collar workers in his electorate when they deserted him at the last election in favour of One Nation’s Stuart Bonds.

“Labor can no longer hide from the fact that traditional working-class voters no longer support their climate and energy policies,” Senator Roberts added.

Mr Stuart Bonds, One Nation candidate in Hunter stated, “It’s over Joel. If you cannot fight for your constituents as the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Resources from the front bench, then you will never do it from the back bench.” Mr Bonds with nearly 22% of the vote in the 2019 election said, “The Hunter deserves a strong voice and I intend to be that voice …. so game on!”

Over the past 12 months I have been working through an issue and story that has, at times, brought me to tears. It is about a miner, Simon Turner, who was severely injured on site doing his job. The accident left Simon totally and permanently disabled; he can never return to work. But it is also about the tens of thousands of workers across the country who could end up in the same position.

Instead of receiving the support and workers’ compensation we would expect, and that coal miners are entitled to, he has been abandoned. Instead of receiving proper entitlements such as accident pay at a full wage, he lives below the poverty line in a garage. The way this has happened has been unlawful, unjust, immoral and unethical. What we’ve uncovered is that this tragedy can happen to anyone and we must fight to have this gap in our industrial relations laws fixed.

This is Simon’s story. It is the story of how any Australian can be thrown on the scrap heap by all the people and organisations who should be there to protect us.

Simon’s injury

Simon worked for Chandler Macleod, a labour hire company who employed him at Mount Arthur, a BHP Billiton Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley. He was an active person and he recounts that he enjoyed his job. At the time of his injury Simon was working on his shift at the mine driving a coal truck.

A coal digger did not see Simon’s truck because of dusty conditions and struck his vehicle. The massive collision directly injured Simon, causing swollen L3, L4 and L5 discs in his back, a pinched sciatic nerve, pinched cranial nerve and a lateral tear in one of the discs. The lateral tear in his back leaks fluid into the spine and the resulting nerve damage goes all the way down his left leg leaving him permanently in pain. As a result, Simon’s leg collapses without notice and he deals with ongoing post-traumatic stress disorder and depression from that day.

Simon’s injuries have meant he is deemed totally and permanently disabled (TPD) and he cannot return to work.

After the accident he was taken to hospital by ambulance where x-rays were not done due to a broken machine, but a doctor indicated Simon should be off work for at least several weeks. During his return from the hospital a BHP representative asked Simon if he would meet with the coal superintendent. Simon agreed and met with him when he returned to mine site.

Pressure

In that meeting the BHP coal superintendent pressured Simon to not report his injury. He says that there have been too many Lost Time Injuries (LTIs). LTIs are reported incidents where an employee can’t come into work because of an injury.

The coal superintendent tells Simon to not report it, that BHP won’t be reporting it and threatens Simon that the way the industry is now, he won’t have a job if he does report it. Casuals like Simon have no job security.

Simon is later asked to come into his next regular rostered shift, ‘just to ensure he gets paid’. Simon goes to site and sits on a steel metal bench for four hours and does nothing. The following shift, Simon is pressured to sign a return to work program which he refuses. It isn’t clear who has made the return to work plan and it certainly hasn’t been done in consultation with Simon.

At this point Simon still has no doctor, no x-rays, no diagnosis and no idea what injuries he has suffered. In Simon’s words, ‘No one knew what was wrong with me and they wanted me to go back out into the pit and start working.’

All of these factors lead me to believe it was an unethical attempt to avoid reporting an LTI. By Simon returning to work for the four hours, even though he did nothing, the mine avoids reporting an LTI because they say he clocked in and therefore returned to work.

It is unlawful to not report a serious injury.

The flaws in the safety system

We now know that some superintendents and supervisors within the mining industry are paid a safety bonus, which is directly related to the number of LTIs that happen on their watch. The less LTIs, the higher the bonus.

The bonus system creates a perverse incentive for superintendents and supervisors to hide injuries and not report them. Simon has been a victim of this perverse incentive.

At the time of his injury Simon, like most of the employees on site, was classed as a casual/labour hire employee. Yet during the year of his injury and the surrounding years, there are no labour hire company employee LTIs reported.

Some labour hire employers are far more concerned about money than they are about people and especially people who stand up for their rights. Simon was terminated without even being told. He found out six months later indirectly through a government agency.

Some companies are known to understate the number of employees on work sites and to describe miners as ‘administration staff’ to get lower insurance premiums – if we did this what would happen to us?

Tragically, we also know that Simon is not the only affected worker. I’ve personally spoken to seven others from the Hunter region who have found themselves in similar situations and believe there are hundreds more in NSW, Queensland and WA. We aren’t talking about just broken fingers.

Their injuries were debilitating. Broken backs, legs broken in half and a myriad of severe and permanent injuries that left people trembling just from talking about them. There have also been suicides within the group. Simon recounts that, ‘I didn’t want to live … three times I’ve thought about killing myself.’

Recently, I presented a submission to the Queensland Board of Inquiry into the Queensland Grosvenor mine explosion that could have had fatal consequences. Here I pointed out to the Board that casuals are not even represented on safety committees, yet they make up such a large part of the industry today.

Mine owners like BHP Billiton and labour hire companies like Chandler Macleod don’t care about anything but money.

The loophole

Under the Black Coal Award, a worker in a coal mine is afforded accident pay and specialised treatment for injuries. However mines avoid their responsibilities by using labour hire companies for their workforce – they are cheaper and have less job security.

In some ways and in some cases, employees aren’t classed by the work they do or where they work, they are classed based on their employer. Importantly when it comes to accessing award entitlements, the employer must be in or about a coal mine. Employers like the mine owner BHP easily pass this test. However, a labour hire firm like Chandler Macleod, the one that employed Simon, is not considered in or about a coal mine and therefore the protections and entitlements don’t apply.

Some mine owners use and explicitly abuse this to avoid their responsibilities to workers like Simon Turner.

Simon worked side-by-side with BHP employees, doing the same job, on the same long-term rosters, on the same site and he came home every day with clothes covered in black coal dust. We believe the current method of classification for miners has led to hundreds of cases of exploitation – pain, poverty and injustice – and this must be addressed.

Simon has not received his accident pay or the specialised treatment he needs to live as good a life as he can with his injuries. He receives a pathetic disability payment which is below the poverty line.

Simon contacted everyone he could – the mine owner, his employer, the workers’ compensation authority, Coal LSL, the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman, his local federal elected representative Labor’s Joel Fitzgerald MP, local state Labor MP, NSW Ministers, NSW government agencies and many more – all of whom ignored his calls for help.

The people and the organisations that should have cared for him did not, and you could be next.

If it had not been for people who cared like Stuart Bonds of One Nation in NSW, nobody would be standing up for Simon Turner today.

Please watch our full video with Simon to learn a bit more about his case and you will see why One Nation stood up for Simon and why we stand up for everyday Australians like you.

Mr Simon Turner was an employee of Chandler Macleod, a labour hire company, and worked at the Mt Arthur coal mine in the Hunter Valley.

The mine owner BHP and his employer called him a casual, even though he worked on the same long-term coal production roster and had the same duties and responsibilities as BHP’s permanent full-time workers, doing the same job.

After being severely injured on a mine site, Simon discovered that he was not getting workers’ injury compensation, accident pay and other entitlements that are part of the Black Coal Award.

In fact, his employer did not even classify Simon as a coal miner and instead classified him as office administration, apparently to lower the workers’ compensation premiums. Simon lost all the benefits of the Black Coal Mining Award including  workers’ injury compensation.

During our investigation into the issues surrounding Simon, we uncovered a number of actions that you should take to ensure that you are being protected from similar unscrupulous practices. This checklist can help you to be sure that you are being treated fairly and are covered in case of a workplace accident:

Transcript

[Malcolm]

Hi, I want to discuss a story of enormous courage and resilience that brought such anger to me and such tears. The whole industrial relations system is broken and complicit in what is happening to people. The deeper issue affects 10s of thousands of men and women, right around this country, especially in Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley.

I worked in one of the industries that this is involved with from the age of 18 to 53 and I have never seen anything like this. The exploitation, the abuse, the negligence, it’s horrific, it’s unethical, immoral, and unlawful with deliberate breaches of laws.

I want to introduce Simon Turner, who’s been fighting this for six years, and he’s going to tell us his story. And I also want to introduce Stuart Bonds, who has developed the trust in the Hunter Valley and he came to us with it and because he did listen to people, and he’s been pushing it at a time when state and federal governments had abandoned it.

BHP had abandoned its responsibilities, Chandler Macleod Group, the CFMMEU in the Hunter Valley has abandoned its people. Politicians, state and federal, labor and liberal have avoided this issue and done enormous damage. So Simon, can you tell us your story please?

[Simon]

I worked for Chandler MacLeod which is a labour hire company at Mount Arthur, BHP Billiton Coal Mine in Hunter Valley, largest black coal mine in New South Wales. I was severely injured at work, while working in dusty conditions.

I was asked by the BHP Superintendent of Coal not to report my injury, which was clearly a lost time injury. They asked me to come into work and not report my injury at all and BHP weren’t going to report it. Now my employer Chandler Macleod, they didn’t report my injury at all which they both have the same duty of care to report anyone that’s injured at work.

Now, they can’t ask someone not to come into work if they’re injured because that’s also a breach of workplace laws, which they clearly don’t care about. They just get people to do what they need them to do so they don’t record a lost time injury for the mine site.

I started at HVO and then moved to Mount Arthur open cut. I enjoyed my job, I loved it a lot. And then one day we were working in conditions that were very dusty, I was hit by the coal digger because he couldn’t see me.

Now the pit was shut down for dust we were still operating ’cause they “still had to get coal out” as they say, he did not see me as there was too much coal dust and hit a metre behind the back of where I was operating the truck and my injuries are swollen discs L3, 4, 5, pinched sciatic nerve, pinched cranial nerve and a lateral tear in one of the discs, that’s leaking fluid into my spine, and then that nerve damage goes all the way down my left leg.

My left leg collapses without any notice and I’ll just drop. I also have severe depression and PTSD caused by what happened that day.

[Stuart]

So I’m in the coal industry, so I know what’s meant to happen. But do you want to tell us what did actually happen to you?

[Simon]

Well, what happened that day, I was taken back into the first aid and emergency area at the mine site, they then called an ambulance. So I was taken to Muswellbrook Hospital via ambulance. I got there, and they assessed me. I was sucking on the green puffer whistle for pain.

They wanted to do X-rays, so a doctor came in and saw me, and gave me some medication for the pain. And they were going to do X-rays at Muswellbrook Hospital, but then they told me that the X-ray machine wasn’t working. Someone from BHP then turned up at the hospital and he waited there.

The doctor said, “Well, you can go, you got to go and have X-rays. We can’t do the X rays here, you’ll be off for a couple of weeks.” So we go back to the mine site and on the journey back in the car, I was asked if I’d go meet with the Coal Superintendent.

I said, “Yep, okay.” When we got back there, I met him in his office. He said to me, “How are you?” I said, “Pretty sore.” He said, “Listen, I don’t want you to report this. We’ve had too many LTIs.” That’s a lost time injury He said, “Don’t report it, we’re not going to report it, and the way the industry is at the moment, if you report it, you won’t have a job.”

So that’s what happened. Then, they told me to come into the next lot of rostered shifts that I had. Just come into work sign on, I’d only have to stay there for four hours and then they’d send me home and they’d make sure that I got paid. So I went in.

The following day, on day shift for four hours I sat there on a steel metal bench, did nothing. On the night shift someone came out, the fill in OCE and asked me to sign a return-to-work programme, and I didn’t even know what injuries I had, I still hadn’t had the X-rays.

No one knew what was wrong with me, and they wanted me to go back out into the pit and start working.

[Stuart]

So why do you think they wanted you to come back for the four hours?

[Simon]

Well that way, a lost time injury, what we know now is that superintendents and supervisors within the mining industry, their coal bonus is directly related in the amount payable with regards to lost time injuries, so the least lost time injuries, the more bonus they get.

[Stuart]

So lost time injuries in a day lost when the employee can’t come back into work. So when you come back to work, you’re counted as being, worked that day.

[Simon]

Yep.

[Stuart]

Even though you sat on a cold steel bench sticking stickers on hard hat.

[Simon]

I didn’t stick anything, I just sat there. I didn’t stick anything on anything. I actually-

[Malcolm]

You’re in pain

[Simon]

Yeah, in pain. And I actually I was on a fair bit of medication. I went and seen the the ambulance guy. He was on site there at the mine site full time, he gave me a heat pack, that was it, it’s all I had.

And then I never went back after that day ’cause I refused to sign the return-to-work plan because when I looked at it, I didn’t know who done it, it wasn’t done in consultation with myself. It wasn’t done with a doctor. I didn’t even have a doctor at that time.

And my employer who was supposedly Chandler Macleod, hadn’t even spoken to me, so.

[Malcolm]

Now Simon as I understand that you’ve got some graphs which we’re going to put in the video. Can you tell us about those graphs for 20… On the year of your injury?

[Simon]

The year of my injury and the year prior to that and for another two years after my injury, the statistics show for LTIs recorded in the mining industry. When I was injured and I know other people have been injured because they have contacted me, I say there were zero LTIs.

[Malcolm]

And we’ve talked to some of those people.

[Simon]

Yeah, you’ve spoken to them, and they’ll come forward and there’s a lot of people.

[Stuart]

Zero injuries at that mine?

[Simon]

In the whole Hunter Valley. Not just that mine, in the whole Hunter Valley and there is hundreds of injuries, reportable injuries, LTIs where people have not gone to work.

Now, the important thing with that those statistics are coming from Coal Mines Insurance and Coal Services because they’re the monopoly insurer for the industry. Now, when my claim has been put through, it hasn’t been put through on that. I’m not a coal miner I’m employed in the New South Wales Statutory System. So-

[Stuart]

You don’t show up in the mining statistics

[Simon]

It doesn’t show up.

[Stuart]

Under the Black Coal Award as a worker in a coal mine, I know that you’re afforded 78 weeks of accident pay under the Black Coal Award and specialised treatment for your injuries. And that’s given from the monopoly insurer, which is Coal Mines Insurance. So what did you actually receive?

[Simon]

I’ve been receiving $400 per week from two other insurers, at first started out as CGU and then change to GIO, New South Wales Statutory Insurer. So I haven’t received any of the Coal Mine entitlements of the full wage for 78 weeks.

So it’s below the poverty line, what I’ve been living on the whole time. Our Enterprise Agreement had provisions in it for 78 weeks accident pay, which is straight from the Award.

[Stuart]

Can you return to work?

[Simon]

I can’t return to work. I’ve been demmed TPD

[Malcolm]

Totally and Permanently Disabled?

[Simon]

Yeah, I can’t work

[Stuart]

So your $400 is-

[Simon]

$400 a week is for life. That’s it. That’s all I get.

[Malcolm]

That’s $20,000 a year, where you were earning about 92,000 earning less than a quarter.

[Simon]

Yeah. So and that’s… had massive ramifications. for me personally,

[Stuart]

So who’s paying? If it’s not Coal Mines Insurance, who’s paying you, who is paying?

[Simon]

The New South Wales State Government has been paying an injured coal miner from the day that I got injured and the claim was filed with CJU

[Malcolm]

And so that’s the uninsured workers?

[Simon]

Yeah.

[Malcolm]

The uninsured workers-

[Simon]

Uninsured Liability Scheme, that’s where I get paid from.

[Malcolm]

So that’s mums and dads who own small businesses and pay workers compensation, premiums are going up, they’re paying for your injury from a multinational company that’s foreign owned and avoiding its responsibilities. And that’s why your workers compensation premiums for small businesses are going up.

[Simon]

And I’m not the only one. There are a lot more people exactly employed with Chandler Macleod and worked at BHP Mount Arthur.

[Malcolm]

And we met with eight of them when we went to Williamtown near Newcastle, and we listened to 8, the bullying, the harassment, the intimidation, the injuries, were just gross. These people some of them are shattered.

[Stuart]

Yeah, we’re not talking broken fingers here, we’re talking broken backs, legs broken in half severe, permanent…

[Simon]

Bullying and harassment it’s-

[Malcolm]

And people who shake and tremble when you talk to them.

[Simon]

Yeah, there’ve been suicides, we know of suicides that have happened.

[Stuart]

The accident pays there to tie you over until you can return to work. Obviously, deemed TPD you can’t return to work, on $400 a week, running out of money, losing your house. What happened at that point?

[Simon]

Oh, that point. I was about to be evicted. I’ve been deemed TPD so I can’t work again. So I called Coal LSL to check on what long service leave I had accrued. They then tell me that I’m not accruing any because I was sacked. And I said, “Okay.” Now my employer terminated my employment a week after I was injured.

They sent a Separation Certificate to Centerlink. They notified AUS Coal superannuation in January of 16, that I was terminated. They terminated my employment to Coal LSL on the 7th of January 2016. And I find out six months later that I was sacked. I was the last person that got told I was sacked. So they tell everybody else except me.

It’s illegal to sack anyone within six months of them being injured and on workers compensation. So not only have they not paid me what I’m entitled to I’ve been paid from a policy that can’t cover me.

They’ve also sacked me and haven’t told me. On the separation certificate, they say, there’s a question on there, has a workers compensation claim been made or will one be made in the future? And they tick no, and this was filled out six months after I’d been on workers comp.

[Malcolm]

So how did you feel when you find all this stuff out and you’re about to be thrown out your house?

[Simon]

I just couldn’t believe anyone, could be so ruthless and do something like this. I just wanted to give up that’s probably why, you know, the depression and everything and that sets in, I didn’t want to live. Yeah, three times I’ve thought about killing myself.

[Stuart]

So whilst you’re on workers comp, you’re not meant to be getting your entitlements whilst you’re on it. You’re super’s meant to be paid your long service leave still meant to be accruing. So that’s how you found out that you’re sacked? That you weren’t, those entitlements

[Simon]

I found out through Coal LSL only because I rang up six months later. That’s how I found out and then I find out that none of those entitlements

[Stuart]

Were accruing.

[Simon]

Were accruing, all gone.

[Malcolm]

Okay, Simon, so let me just check with you. You were… You’ve lost your Award entitlements and protections, you’re 40% underpaid compared with your BHP employees doing the same job, same responsibilities, same duties, right next to you. And your Coal LSL Long Service Leave provisions were under reported.

And when I asked them questions about that, they had never done an audit on individuals. They – They hadn’t done an audit. And then when they did an audit after I pursued them in senate estimates, they came back and admitted that you were correct. Is that correct?

[Simon]

Correct. Everything was correct.

[Stuart]

So our entire industrial relations system is set up with a series of checks and balances, because we have a federal award and we have to make sure the awards are minimum standard.

So to check all this, you’ve got the Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Ombudsman, you’ve got union bosses that go to negotiations, you’ve got your HR department of your labour hire companies, you’ve got mine safety inspectors, lawyers, senators the State Insurance Regulatory Authority, Coal Mines Insurance, Coal Services, Workers Compensation Independent Review Office, which is WIRO, you’ve got the media.

How many of these people have you engaged with and told them what’s going on?

[Simon]

All of them, hundreds of emails.

[Malcolm]

There’s even two more points I would raise. You forgot the Local Federal Member, Joel Fitzgibbon. Now he illustrates what was going on here, because I’ve written to him, he hasn’t responded.

[Simon]

I wrote to him six times.

[Malcolm]

You’ve written to him six times. and in the interactions we’ve had through the media, we’ve explained the enormous scale of this problem, the depth of the problem, he’s come back and said, “Roberts doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s just about the casual employment.”

Well, that’s a misrepresentation of what’s going on. But you’ve also got the fact that some of these players enabled this to happen, they actually created the circumstances. The Hunter Valley Branch of the CFMMEU looks like it has set this up.

[Simon]

It’s the only way, it can happen.

[Malcolm]

Yeah, it can’t happen without that. BHP have been complicit, the Chandler Macleod Group have been complicit. They have stolen part of your life from you. The CFMMEU in the Hunter Valley has done the same. Some of the bureaucrats have done the same.

[Stuart]

Well, you’re meant to have the Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Ombudsman overseeing all this, to make sure that this exact scenario doesn’t occur.

[Simon]

But it doesn’t have to get to that point. And this is what they fail to say in some and some of the media and social pages that they like to comment on. Not once have I put it in for dispute before it was voted on. They can’t say oh, you voted on it or they approved it. If it gets put into dispute before it even gets to that point, nothing happens. No one’s employed as a casual.

[Malcolm]

So the system is rotten Simon and Stuart the system is rotten. But worse, there are senior players in the system that actively make it happen. Make the corruption happen.

[Simon]

Correct.

[Stuart]

Okay, so you were talking before about putting agreements into dispute before they even get to the Fair Work Commission, to challenge them, to make sure they’re better off overall. So the union have recently contested an Enterprise Agreement which was for BHP’s in house labour hire firm.

So that was the OS agreement at Mount Arthur Coal, which was exactly the same Coal Mine that you were employed at, exactly the same Coal Mine that they have Chandler MacLeod’s still working alongside them, but it was for more money. Am I correct in saying that?

[Simon]

Yeah, the Chandler Macleod agreement pays even less than what the OS agreement does.

[Stuart]

And the OS agreement was thrown out, because it didn’t meet the better off overall test. Yet, there’s people being paid less than that working on the same mine site.

[Malcolm]

And correct me if I’m wrong. They don’t have the conditions and protections that even the OS Agreement has got in it, but that was thrown out.

[Simon]

Yep. That’s right

[Malcolm]

How does this go on?

[Simon]

Well, there’s a letter from Chandler Macleod to the CFMEU that says, “You will not take any legal action against us now or in the future.

[Stuart]

Yeah.

[Malcolm]

What?

[Simon]

I’m serious.

[Malcolm]

I was an underground coalface miner in the ’70s. in the Hunter Valley, I was a mine manager in the ’80s in the Hunter Valley, I worked in the Hunter Valley as a consultant in the 1990s and in the 2000s. There is no way on earth or even underground that the Coal Miners Union would have let this happen. What did happen?

[Simon]

Well, you would think that but basically, it’s their own business model, the union they own the labour hire company, employing casuals, started out as United Mining Management Services, and then basically progressed on to being owners within Tesa and then selling that model on to a larger company called Skilled.

And then basically endorsing EA’s with casual employment.

[Malcolm]

And the bar graph that the stacked bar graph that we’ll put on the screen here that you showed me yesterday indicated that there’s some pretty dodgy deals happening involving union bosses most likely, making money out of it.

[Simon]

Yeah. it’s … They’re business partners with the big mining companies. They basically, they own Coal Mines Insurance along with the New South Wales Minerals Council, which is all the mine owners. They’re a joint venture of Aus Coal Superannuation with New South Wales and Queensland Minerals Council.

And then you’ve got them on the boards of Coal LSL and Coal Services.

[Stuart]

So if one… We’ve see we’ve seen how easy this is to stop, I mean, you just put the enterprise agreements into dispute, they stop the OS Agreement. So we know it’s possible to happen. So if one person or one government body had done the right thing, this wouldn’t happen. This a eight billion dollar black hole doesn’t exist.

[Simon]

So there’s no external scrutiny whatsoever. They control the whole industry.

[Stuart]

They control their own oversight and auditing. So if the… So this is a mine owner, is in bed with the union, and the government’s turned a blind eye, and you have all got screwed.

[Simon]

Yeah.

[Malcolm]

So some of the mining companies want cheaper labour rates. Some of the dodgy union bosses enable that to happen, and they get a cut on it, by the side. So what we can see here is a need for an investigation of all these entities.

We’ve got Coal LSL, Coal Mines Insurance, We’ve got the State Governments Safety Inspectors, We’ve got Fair Work Commission, Fair Work Commission Ombudsman, we’ve got some politicians that we think, we’ve got union bosses all need investigating.

And what that means is that people are no longer protected by the political, by the industrial or by the unions, and they’re certainly not protected by some of these grubby companies.

What it means is that if this can happen to you and hundreds of people you know, and that we’ve met it can happen to anyone in Australia, it can happen to you.