James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to start by thanking the member for Bowman for moving this motion and getting all these on-the-record comments from members of the government—they're deeply supportive of the CFMMEU and the way in which they operate in society—which is very helpful.

The member for Lyne is going to chastise me for this because I'm slightly revealing something that happened in our party room, which we're not meant to do. But I remember, a couple of years ago, the then Attorney-General bringing a package of industrial relations reforms forward, and one of them involved changing the Fair Work Act to allow for a union to deamalgamate. We all thought the Labor Party would never support anything like this. We were told: 'No, no. Just on the quiet: the Labor Party absolutely will support this, because the mining division of the CFMMEU wants to deamalgamate from the CFMMEU.'

We changed the law, and the Labor Party supported it. The mining union was so embarrassed to be associated with the CFMMEU that they wanted to support a change to the law so that they could not have anything to do with that union going forward. Just recently, of course, we've seen the actions in the Federal Court where the mining division of the CFMMEU, in their application and attempt to not be associated with the CFMMEU, are having to make legal argument in court as to why they want deamalgamate. Their main reason is the way in which the CFMMEU continually breaks the law, and they themselves have submitted to the court an enormous number of examples of why being associated with the current iteration of the CFMMEU is something to be embarrassed and ashamed about. The mining division of the CFMMEU doesn't want to be a part of that bad behaviour, and good on them for that.

Another poor bloke that fell foul of the CFMMEU was someone by the name of Aaron Cartledge, who was the state secretary of the CFMMEU in my home state of South Australia. He wasn't big, bad and ugly enough for the CFMMEU, particularly the Victorian branch, and he was hounded out of that role. The South Australian division of the CFMMEU were made moribund, and, now, the Victorian chapter of the CFMMEU runs the CFMMEU in my home state of South Australia.

Aaron Cartledge didn't break the law enough. He didn't do the wrong thing enough. He wasn't acceptable to these people. He is a lifelong union man, a proud Labor man, someone that probably cared about things like the welfare of workers. Well, that wasn't what the CFMMEU, particularly the Victorian division of the CFMMEU, saw as being any form of high-value credential when it came to operating as the secretary of a union. So he's gone.

Now John Setka and co are running the CFMMEU not just in Victoria but also in my home state of South Australia. The Labor Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas, was so embarrassed and ashamed of having anything to do with that guy that he returned the donations from that union that were given to the South Australian Labor Party for the recent state election. That's who the CFMMEU are, particularly their construction division out of Victoria, and that's what they stand for. We've got a situation now where the head of the Master Builders Association in South Australia has had to hire a security firm because he fears for his own personal safety and that of his family. Vehicles owned by senior members of the Master Builders Association were vandalised in the car park with all kinds of slogans, and there was disgusting, despicable behaviour by people on the basis that the MBA doesn't toe the line in supporting the new regime that runs the CFMMEU in South Australia.

A Labor Premier is embarrassed to be associated with them and returns an enormous amount of money, which would hurt the coffers of the Labor Party; we know how much they rely on support from the union movement. When the South Australian Premier says, 'I can't accept six-figure sums from this union; it would be an embarrassment to be associated with them,' and when a guy like Aaron Cartledge is not welcomed to continue to lead the union in South Australia, something is seriously rotten with that bikie gang that they call a union, being the CFMMEU.

Those opposite would do themselves a favour to take a leaf out of Peter Malinauskas's book. Don't have anything to do with those people. Disavow them; disown them. Do what Bob Hawke did with the old BLU. Set a standard for the behaviour—even if it's in the union movement that gives you so much money—that you will not accept. That's why I commend this motion to the House.

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