Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

And productivity in building and construction improved by 16.8 per cent over that period, because of the ABCC. When the Leader of the Opposition became the minister for employment, he turned all that on its head. He abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission, he established Fair Work Building and Construction, which was reduced in terms of its power and was cut by 30 per cent in terms of its funding, and the rogue CFMEU got back its place at the cabinet table that it had lost under the Howard government.

It is important to know who the CFMEU is, because I think many members of the public do not quite realise the kind of rogue union that we are talking about. This is a union that received a $1.5 million record fine for criminal contempt of court this year, in 2014, for its blockade of the Myer Emporium site. This is a union that has been found guilty of contempt of court 28 times since the year 2000, with links to gangland bosses like Mick Gatto; through its secretary, John Setka; and with links to the Comancheros and the Rebels bikie gangs. Labor's response to this information about the CFMEU, which is quite public, has been to welcome it back in to the Victorian Labor Party—the same division that the Leader of the Opposition comes from. In fact, it has been welcomed back not just into the Victorian Labor Party but welcomed back into the socialist left faction of Daniel Andrews, the leader of the opposition in Victoria.

The CFMEU is part of the same faction as the socialist left leader of the opposition in Victoria, Daniel Andrews.

Opposition members interjecting—

'Hear, hear', they are saying. They love it. They have accepted $10 million of donations from the CFMEU since the year 2000, including $2 million for the Victorian division. And the Leader of the Opposition refuses to criticise the CFMEU. The problem is: he who pays the piper calls the tune, and the Leader of the Opposition needs to reject donations from the CFMEU. He needs to call for the expulsion of the CFMEU from the Victorian division. Until he does, he will be the weak Leader of the Opposition that we all know him to be.

An opposition member interjecting—

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