Safety Defects Plague Adelaide

Fifty nine prohibition notices have been slapped on Adelaide building sites while Tony Abbott’s multi-million dollar Taskforce "sat on its hands".

The rectification orders were handed out in the space of four weeks by Workplace Services Inspectors carrying out a blitz on construction safety.

CFMEU secretary, Martin O'Malley, said Workplace Services attention to the issue was "not before time" but still contrasted with the Taskforce which "sat on its hands" when it came to worker safety.

He said the latest Taskforce safety intervention in Adelaide had seen three officers dispatched to the premises of a company working on the federal law courts building.

They had gone there, O'Malley said, to make certain workers hadn't been paid for sitting in the sheds for half an hour while a safety concern was addressed.

"The Taskforce hasn't done one thing to make Adelaide a safer place for building workers," O'Malley said.

"All they are is a nuisance. They don't contribute to the wellbeing of the industry or anyone in it.

"Frankly, our people now treat them with the disrespect they deserve. They are either failed policemen or rejected parking wardens who want to cling onto a bit of power."

O'Malley made his assessment as controversial Taskforce boss, Nigel Hadgkiss, was fending off allegations of corruption and improper use of bugging devices, levelled against his officers at Senate hearings in Canberra.

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Last modified: Tuesday, 15-Nov-2005 20:37:38 EST