Thousands of construction workers will today hit the streets to protest the LNP government’s cancellation of Best Practice Industry Conditions and its proposed changes to Queensland’s work health and safety laws.

The Crisafulli LNP government will revive a failed Campbell Newman-era policy to delay union officials from entering worksites to investigate safety breaches.

It comes after this nasty right-wing government incited a hate campaign against unionised workers as it prepares to cut funding for public infrastructure projects and take an axe to Queensland workers’ wages and conditions.

Leading the rally will be Jenny Newport, whose son died of heat stress in 2013 on a coal seam gas pipeline construction site near Roma; and Jess Whitton, the mother of a 17-year-old worker who died last year after a fall on a building site in Brisbane.

“The Crisafulli, Bleijie government has attacked construction workers who are building this state, using the mantra of ‘productivity’. The LNP has thrown the door open for dodgy builders and developers whose only motive is profit,” ETU QLD/NT Secretary Peter Ong said.

“We know from history, every minute matters when it comes to investigating health and safety issues. We will not take a backward step; we have a responsibility as unionists to stand up and fight back. When health and safety rights are reduced, people die.”

“The LNP’s war on workers has resumed. First it was BPICs, now it’s health and safety… what’s next?”

CFMEU QLD/NT Construction Coordinator Matthew Vonhoff said: “Bad builders and dodgy developers are the only people who will benefit from locking union officials out of worksites. A 24-hour delay will give bosses plenty of time to cover up safety breaches to avoid accountability for injuries and deaths onsite.

“The LNP’s changes to right of entry laws is a favour to their financial donors. Safety on construction sites can’t wait 24 hours. Workers will pay for this political stunt, just as they did a decade ago under the Newman government.”