Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Congratulations on your elevation, Madam Deputy Speaker Claydon.

If there was ever anything to demonstrate that Labor is all about looking after their union mates, it's their plan to abolish the Australian Building Construction Commission. Those opposite should be ashamed, because the ABCC has done some incredible work, calling out and prosecuting the very kind of behaviour that Labor continually highlights as needing to be removed from our society.

We've already heard about the countless things the ABCC was put in place to expose. We've heard about the CFMMEU official calling a female inspector crude and offensive names. We've heard about union officials making threats of sexual violence against women and spitting at female workplace inspectors and about other intimidating behaviour. It's disgusting. These kinds of behaviours are the reason why we need the ABCC.

The kind of union thuggery we've become used to seeing on sites is incredibly detrimental. Let me give you an example from my own electorate. The Townsville stadium is a fantastic project which has been great for our city and was supported when we were in government. But during the construction, we saw delays because of unlawful industrial action organised by one of the CFMMEU workers. We had situations where the CFMMEU officials visited the stadium site and spoke to a group of workers while holding copies of the template of their enterprise agreement, saying words to the effect, 'You need to make your bosses sign this.' A few months later there was another visit, which resulted in 11 subbies refusing to commence work, 15 more the next day and a similar number refusing to work two days later. The union was fined $200,000 for unlawful industrial action, with the Federal Court justice labelling it 'coercion', 'disgraceful', 'shameful', ;deplorable' and 'dismal'. These are other words that the now government has left out from the Federal Court justice.

Multiply this incident around other sites across the country, and, not only do you have workers turning up to work in fear of being coerced and bullied, you also have the cost to the economy. We rely so heavily on the construction sector. It has been a critical part of our economic recovery. Now, in these times of increasing interest rates and increasing costs of living, we can't be adding more costs to the industry. Building and construction projects all around Australia are already grappling with increasing material costs, supply shortages and lengthy delays caused by COVID. If you strip the industry of the protections that the ABCC brings, we will see more stop works and costly, unlawful industrial action, so the need to keep the ABCC is clear.

This is something that Master Builders has noted on multiple occasions. To quote the CEO:

The construction unions, particularly the CFMEU, continue to target builders, particularly small building businesses with tactics to bully, intimidate and coerce them to sign up to union deals.

Every day on building sites, construction unions threaten with tactics that cause disruption and stoppages to projects. This undermines the productivity of the industry when the economy can least afford it.

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Construction activity is driving the economic recovery in communities around the country. We cannot allow the activities of construction union bullies to put that at risk.

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Labor's policy to abolish the ABCC will put economic recovery at risk.

We are at risk of seeing history repeat itself. As soon as Labor abolished the ABCC in 2012, the improvements in respect for the law were almost immediately lost. After getting rid of the ABCC, the rate of disputes in the construction industry rose to approximately four times the average of all industries.

Of course, we know exactly why this is one of the first moves by the Labor government. We know that the Labor government has received donations from the CFMMEU to the tune of $16.3 million over the last 20 years. It's a lot of money. We shouldn't risk losing the ABCC for Labor Party donations.

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