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

I rise in support of the amendments moved by the member of Mackellar. I'd also like to agree with statements made by the previous contributor, the member for Menzies. I would like to congratulate him on a very relevant contribution to this parliament. I think it was extremely relevant.

Today, we're debating an amendment around the ABCC that is quite close to a lot of people's hearts. We know that the ABCC has improved productivity. In places like Townsville, we saw the construction of our stadium, the Queensland Country Bank Stadium, where the ABCC was involved in calling out extreme, militant behaviour that was conducted by the CFMMEU. These CFMMEU members were not from the region. They were not from Townsville. These union members were flown in—some from interstate and some from the south-east corner. They rocked up and they were bullying people in the construction industry, demanding that they either join the union or get off site. The ABCC stood up for these workers. Many of these workers are small businesses that just want to get on with doing the job.

The ABCC has had many different reports conducted into them. One independent economic report on the state of the sector said that, during the period, multifaceted productivity rose by 16 per cent, consumers were better off by around $7.5 billion annually and there was significant reduction in working days lost through industrial action. This should be supported—having minimal time off and ensuring that the ABCC is there to be the watchdog, the independent umpire and an independent group that can call out bad behaviour

On the project in Townsville where the ABCC called out militant union behaviour, we saw fines given to the CFMMEU for doing the wrong thing—rocking up to the site and bullying people. This isn't a good thing. We've seen assaults. We've seen the way that people have been treated on job sites by the CFMMEU in particular, so having an independent watchdog is a good idea.

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