LNP HYPOCRISY OVER OAKY NORTH LOCK OUT

Labor welcomes news of the conclusion of the Oaky North mine lock out, however reports today expose the hypocrisy of a number of central Queensland LNP members.

The country miners at Oaky North have been locked out of the mine for more than 200 days as LNP members stood by silently and watched it happen.  

It took for the country miners to travel to Canberra for many LNP Members to even meet with them.

It is insincere and an insult to the workers for LNP Members to now claim that they support the miners and to claim victory over the result, when many wouldn’t even visit the miners in their workplace. It’s too little, too late, and the miners know this.

George Christensen, Michelle Landry, Matt Canavan and Ken O’Dowd all say one thing in their electorate and do another (nothing) in Canberra. They watched as senior Government Ministers attacked those workers who had been subject to a lock out.

They are attempting to persuade their electorates that they’ve been working hard on this issue in Canberra, when the facts show this isn’t true.

They’ve been missing in action when it counts.

Michelle Landry has commented that there are “definite shortcomings of the Fair Work Act” – I won’t hold my breath for a coherent explanation of her proposed reforms.

The Turnbull Government hasn’t done a single thing to address the growing incidence of insecure and casualised work.

Instead they are contributing to the rise of insecure work through their failure to do anything to address problems with labour hire particularly in the mining industry, their support for companies terminating enterprise agreements, and their support for cuts to penalty rates.

It’s time the Government followed Labor and put workers and decent jobs first.