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

To the eternal shame of the Gillard-Labor government, they abolished the ABCC. And what happened? It was a return to the bad old days on the building and construction sites. The coalition had to fight tooth and nail to re-establish the industry watchdog, the ABCC, but Labor still didn't learn, because they took to the election last May that they would abolish the ABCC again. This is an appalling state of affairs for Australians and for the building and construction industry. The final word really needs to go to the people who actually work in the building and construction industry: the hardworking, quiet Australians. Their judgement on the unions is absolutely crystal clear: 25 years ago, 34 per cent of the construction workforce were members of a union and by 2016 that had dropped to 10 per cent—that says it all. If Labor were truly for the workers, they'd stop running the union agenda and they'd help us crack down on union officials who do the wrong thing. Unfortunately, the only thing Labor is interested in building is a power base for their union mates. (Time expired)

See this speech in context