Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Robertson for her question. She, like the government, is very committed to cleaning up the union movement in Australia and she is also committed to improving productivity in the building and construction industry. She is also committed to supporting honest union leaders who do the right thing by workers and to getting rid of the bad union leaders who give them all a bad name. The government has introduced the Registered Organisations Commission bill and the Australian Building and Construction Commission bill because they support honest union leaders, they will improve productivity in building and construction and they will root out dishonest, corrupt union leaders.

The only people opposing this legislation are the Labor Party. The Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party are blocking these bills in the Senate. Make no mistake, this will be an issue at the next election because it is vitally important that these bills pass. The Leader of the Opposition was on the ABC's 7.30 on Tuesday night. He was there defending the CFMEU. I was absolutely shocked. He strongly, enthusiastically supported the CFMEU. This is despite the fact that Dyson Heydon said in the royal commission that the disregard for the law was a longstanding malignancy or disease in the CFMEU.

Ms Kate Ellis interjecting—

See this speech in context