Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bonner for his question. He understands how important building and construction is to Queensland, and all of the members on this side of the House understand how important the building and construction industry is to the Australian economy. Last year alone, building and construction was worth about $141 billion—that's about 7½ per cent of GDP—and well over one million people were employed in the building and construction sector.

The coalition has always backed building and construction and the hardworking people in building and construction, and that's why we set up an industry watchdog. We established the Australian Building and Construction Commission in 2005. It's important to just do a little bit of a recap on why it was so necessary for us to establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission. The Cole royal commission uncovered some staggering examples of union thuggery within the industry. This included fraud, corruption, collusion and anticompetitive behaviour, unlawful work practices, violence and inappropriate industrial practice. The ABCC changed all of that. While it was in place, productivity grew by nine per cent. The Australian people were better off by about $7.5 billion annually.

Dr Freelander interjecting—

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