Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that trade union malfeasance has cost taxpayers around 30 per cent, and possibly more, of their investment in recent infrastructure projects, and has led to widespread harm among Australian workers;

(2) welcomes the Government's decisive and comprehensive program of measures to investigate, stamp out and punish union malfeasance, including;

(a) the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2016;

(b) the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Act 2016, which included the restored Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), and the Building Code 2016; and

(c) the Fair Work Amendment (Corrupting Benefits) Act 2017;

(3) congratulates the Government on dealing with the scourge of union misbehaviour on Australian construction sites; and

(4) encourages the Government to continue to explore ways of eliminating unethical trade union practices and to provide all necessary legal and financial support to the ABCC in its work to investigate and punish illegality in the construction industry.

In the years before the ABCC was established, the industrial dispute rate in the construction sector was five times the all-industry average. When the ABCC operated from 2005 to 2012, that rate dropped to only twice the average—not a good rate, but still it dropped to twice the average. For the first quarter after the ABCC was abolished, in September 2012, the rate increased fivefold.

As someone who's worked in the building and construction industry all of my adult life, 30 years, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the extent of union corruption in the building industry is absolutely rife. Since 2007, the CFMEU has accrued fines for illegal activities of more than $12 million. That's a new record. On 13 September they received $2.4 million in fines for illegal behaviour at the Barangaroo site alone. If it hadn't been for the Leader of the Opposition's abolition of the ABCC, these fines would have been up to $4.8 million higher, as the proceedings commenced under the old penalty regime, which he himself had introduced, rather than the coalition government's restored ABCC.

Since 2007, the CFMEU has donated $8.1 million to the Labor Party. The CFMEU's fines have included activities on projects like the Queensland Children's Hospital, the Commonwealth Games venue in Queensland, the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the Ronald McDonald Charity House, which accommodates the families of sick children. The CFMEU knows no bounds. It doesn't care what the subject site is. And it's not just happening in Queensland; it's also happening in Western Australia where they also disrupted the children's hospital site.

As at September 2014, there were 90 CFMEU representatives before the courts for more than 1,300 suspected contraventions. This is no surprise, as even the ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, said in March on national television that she believes that it is acceptable for unions to break laws that they disagree with. The Leader of the Opposition's response was to suggest that he would change the laws that the unions want to break.

This is not just me talking about the malfeasance of the CFMEU. Justice Jessup in a decision in July 2016 said this:

The CFMEU's record of non-compliance with legislation of this kind has now become notorious … That record ought to be an embarrassment to the trade union movement.

Judge Jarrett, in the same month, said:

The CFMEU has as egregious record of repeated and wilful contraventions of all manner of industrial laws.

Justice White in April 2016 said that the CFMEU's compliance with industrial legislation has generally been poor—perhaps the understatement of the century. He said:

The union's prior history bespeaks an attitude by the CFMEU of ignoring, if not defying the law, and a willingness to contravene it as and when it chooses.

Judge Vasta in March 2016 said:

It would be apt to describe the behaviour of—

namely, the CFMEU–

as sheer thuggery. Such thuggery has no place in the Australian workplace. Contraventions of the Fair Work Act that involve such thuggery cannot be tolerated.

Yet those members opposite, even here today, continue to support their trade union masters.

The Leader of the Opposition's policy on union misbehaviour was revealed in letters between him and the CFMEU when he was running for the Labor leadership. In an effort to attain the CFMEU's support, the Leader of the Opposition agreed to their demands lock, stock and barrel. It is absolutely a matter of fact that the Leader of the Opposition is owned by the CFMEU, and he ought to be condemned. (Time expired)

See this speech in context