A massive crowd of protesters has brought traffic to a standstill in one city as they make their voices heard about two key issues.
Thousands of construction workers have marched through Brisbane’s CBD, bringing traffic to a standstill as they protest the housing crisis and a “killer” stone product.
The group gathered in the CBD at 8am on Thursday before they made their way from Queen’s Gardens to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre where the ALP national conference is being held.
The CFMEU, which represents some 100,000 construction workers nationwide, is campaigning for a super profits tax on corporations to fund more affordable housing and a ban on engineered stone products.
The super profits tax would introduce a 40 per cent tax on corporations earning more than $100m in turnover, which the union says would raise upwards of $511bn between now and 2041.
Speaking at the National Press Club in July, CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith said the tax would cause the “least amount of suffering” as Australia grapples with its escalating housing crisis.
“Theoretically we could do this faster and hit the target quicker but there are constraints on construction capacity, land release and so on,” he said.
“2041 is a feasible target and if we operate on that timeframe and if we factor in how the cost of construction is expected to increase over the forecast period, we will need an investment of $511bn between now and 2041.”
The union is also calling for a ban on engineered stone products such as kitchen and bathroom benchtops.
The cutting of engineered stone releases a fine dust that can embed itself into a worker’s lungs.
A Curtin University report estimates 10,000 workers will develop lung cancers from the exposure.
New CFMEU national secretary Zach Smith addressed the crowd, saying that working on the engineered stone is a “death sentence”.
“We can’t let the Labor Party forget they were founded on the working class,” Mr Smith said.
“We have a product, engineered stone, one in four workers are dying in their prime. That is a death sentence. Will our political class accept that figure.”
CFMEU Queensland secretary Jade Ingham went further.
“If they don’t ban this import, then politicians will have blood on their hands,” she told the Courier Mail.
“We elected them and it’s about time they represented us.”
The CFMEU is calling for a super profits tax to fund a massive housing build. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire
“The only way we will end silicosis among stone masons is to ban engineered stone,” Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Liam O’Brien has said.
State health and safety ministers will consider a ban on all engineered stone products at a meeting later this year.
The CFMEU is not the only group protesting outside the conference on Thursday, with dozens of climate protesters also gathered outside the convention centre.
Protesters from Extinction Rebellion are demanding Labor commit to no new coal and gas projects.
They plan to create a human clock to argue to the government that “the time is now” to act on climate change.
CFMEU workers are marching to put pressure of the Labor government as the ALP meets for a conference in Brisbane. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire
Motorists have been warned of delays in the CBD along Victoria Bridge and at Southbank when the conference is set to start.
Labor is holding its first national conference in Brisbane this week since the 1970s.
About 2000 party members, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, are expected to attend the conference, which will last until Sunday.
Mr Albanese was met with a “rock star welcome” at the conference according to one attendee, receiving a standing ovation when he got up to speak on Thursday morning.
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