Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Hansard source

No-one is doing that? Well, a CFMMEU official made three phone calls late at night to a female inspector's mobile phone. The last call was at 11.23. An anonymous flyer was circulated referring to the woman as 'a dog who wanted to be a pole dancer'. This stuff actually happens; right. It actually happens, and that's why we need a strong cop on the beat.

Now this behaviour, the CFMMEU's behaviour, has been described variously but including as a serial offender, engaging in whatever actions and making whatever threats it wishes without regard to the law. Those opposite scoff at the idea that an ABCC and having a strong cop on the beat can put downward pressure on building costs. Well, the Master Builders Association disagrees with your position. They say that is exactly what it does. Those productivity impacts, I think, are best illustrated by the period between July 2012 and December 2016, when 43,000 work days a year were lost to industrial action. Once we re-established the cop on the beat for the same four-year period between 2017 and 2022, it was 15,000 days per year. The reality is you can't hide from this.

One might wonder reasonably in the gallery or listening to the broadcast why would the Australian Labor Party come into this place and, as one of the first orders of business, abolish the ABCC? They always say to people: in politics follow the money. You are usually on the money if you are following the money.

Government members interjecting—

I said 'one of the first orders'. The reality is if you are following the money, you are close to the money, and the reality is the CFMMEU has contributed to those opposite, to their election coffers, around $1 million a year over the last five years and upwards of $20 million over the last two decades. You know, it is not what you say that matters; it is what you do. In the days after an election, you are always very conscious to go and see your most important supporters. The newly elected member for Spence in recent days has met with the CFMMEU and thanked them for their support. It says everything the people of Australia need to know about those opposite.

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