Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question and recognise that in 1996, when he was elected, the unemployment rate in his electorate was 6.1 per cent; today it is 4.7 per cent, which is fantastic news. That does not happen by accident. It happens because we are prepared to put in place reforms of the Australian economy that help to build prosperity, including workplace reform and accepting the recommendations of the Cole royal commission into the building industry in 2003, which presented a compelling and unassailable need for change. That is why we set up an independent regulator with real teeth, the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Since we set up the ABCC, the watchdog, the number of strikes in the building industry has fallen to record lows. In fact, of every 1,000 working days, the number of days lost to strikes has fallen from 37 days to two days every three months. That makes a real difference because every day lost in the building industry costs the industry $200,000, and on major construction projects that is a very significant sum. Yet the Labor Party wants to abolish the watchdog. The Labor Party is so enamoured of the great work of this watchdog, its reduction in the number of strikes, that the Labor Party wants to abolish this watchdog. If it is working so well, why doesn’t the Labor Party want to keep it?

Well, I too came across the words of Dean Mighell, the boss of the Electrical Trades Union in Victoria. I thought I would get a clearer picture of why the Labor Party wants to abolish the watchdog when I read the transcript of what he said in the Dallas Brooks Hall in 2006. This is what Dean Mighell said: ‘The Australian Building and Construction Commission, their budget this year is $32.9 million and they have 155 employees and probably one of the—expletive—is in this room now monitoring this agreement.’ He goes on to say: ‘The greedy—expletive—and you have to have a look at what they offer at the end of the day is—expletive—and—expletive—agreements—expletive—me. What ability do we have to take protected industrial action anymore? The answer is—expletive—all.’

Of course, Dean Mighell is Labor Party royalty. He has Labor Party candidates running in seats such as Franklin, Bowman and Deakin. The ETU is still affiliated with the Labor Party. Of course, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition gave an address to the ETU conference on 1 May. She did not worry about anything that was said about Dean Mighell before that—just went along and they had a happy greeting. So I was wondering: what is Dean Mighell going to wake up to tomorrow morning; what is going to be the headline? And I thought to myself, as I was listening to the Leader of the Opposition on Sky News, ‘Dean Mighell is going to wake up to an interesting headline: “Union boss quits Labor”.’ That is the headline Dean Mighell is going to see tomorrow morning. It is interesting because Dean Mighell resigned from the Labor Party three years ago! It is like Groundhog Day. Dean Mighell is going to wake up tomorrow morning, the clock radio will click over as it did for Bill Murray. Sonny and Cher will come on with I Got You, Babe and the radio will say:

Okay, campers … don’t forget your booties because it’s COOOLD out there …

See this speech in context