Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Gilmore. It is absolutely clear, after their votes in this House over the last two days, that the Labor Party are deliberately running a parliamentary protection racket for the thugs of the CFMEU. And it is not just our view. What we heard yesterday from ACCI was absolutely clear: a failure to pass the Australian Building and Construction Commission legislation would add 30 per cent to the cost of what would otherwise be construction in Australia—30 per cent, and that means jobs and that means fewer projects and that means that the outcome is that the workers suffer and the community suffers.

But it is not just ACCI that says this. We know that the Master Builders has done work in this space. In an article headed 'Nation held to ransom by union thugs' in The Courier-Mail, here is what was said:

THE cost of nation-changing projects will fall by 30 per cent if union thugs can be erased from building sites by a powerful new watchdog, according to Master Builders Australia.

But it is worse than that. It is the community that actually suffers from Labor's intransigence and protection racket. What did Master Builders go on to say?

It is the community that is being cheated, it is the community that is being deprived of the much-needed classrooms, the additional hospital beds, the additional childcare places.

So it is clear that Labor are deliberately willing to destroy jobs to protect a union which is thuggish and itself destroys jobs. The one thing that the CFMEU is willing to do is to create some jobs on that side—and right on cue—

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