Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I have moved—but I'm happy to run through it again for the benefit of the minister. I've moved that so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent a minister from immediately introducing, without notice, a bill to amend the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009.

I return to the explanation to the House of why such a suspension is necessary. First of all, it is necessary to canvass the appalling track record of the CFMEU and of John Setka, a man notorious for his criminality and thuggishness. The urgency arises because of the desperate desire of many in the union movement, including within the merged CFMEU, to get as far away from Mr Setka as possible. The second reason why this is necessary is the hopeless record of equivocation, spinelessness and backflips from the ALP, and from the member for Watson in particular. And the third is the inadequacy of the other procedural paths which have been proposed to deal with this very urgent matter.

Let me turn, firstly, to the appalling track record of the CFMEU and of John Setka. He runs a union which is a byword for thuggery, for intimidation, for violence and for criminality. Federal Court judges have regularly described the attitude of CFMEU officials—who are regularly before that court—as clearly regarding the fines and the criminal convictions that they regularly rack up as simply part of doing business. What we know is that Mr Setka is from the construction and maritime divisions, and that there's a very big, ongoing fight with the mining and manufacturing division, led by Michael O'Connor. What we know, in particular, is that just in the last two or three weeks, Mr Setka has managed, if it were possible, to enhance his already appalling record for thuggery and intimidation with the threats that he has directed at the AFL—particularly at Mr Stephen McBurney, who is the Head of Officiating for the AFL.

What is the stated rationale for Mr Setka's threats? It is that Mr McBurney was previously the head of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and that, in that role, he was responsible for bringing evidence of the CFMEU's bullying, thuggery and intimidation before the courts. In 91 per cent of those cases, they were found to have breached the Fair Work Act. Mr Setka doesn't like that at all. The CFMEU were fined millions of dollars for those breaches. What has Mr Setka said? I'm going to use the word 'flipper' in place of a particular word that he used, and I'm going to use the word 'flip' in place of another particular word that he used, so as not to offend the dignity of the House. He said: 'We have an obligation to pursue anti-union, anti-worker flippers like him and we will until the end of the earth … This is going to cost the AFL a lot of flipping money. I hope it's worth it. Projects without our full cooperation are going to be a flipping misery for them … They will regret the day they ever employed him.' That's Mr Setka: what a quality individual he is!

Of course, we know the union he leads is notorious for the intimidation of women. This was seen once there was a merger between the textile, clothing and footwear membership into the broader CFMEU. One of the union representatives—not an employer representative but a union representative—had this to say about the workplace culture of the CFMEU offices:

Within the building there were jokes about domestic violence.

That does not sound like an appropriate thing to joke about at all. What has Mr Setka's estranged wife had to say? In a sworn statement to police in August 2019 she said: 'John was out of control. He hit my head against the table about five times. It was very painful.' This is the quality individual we are talking about.

Let me turn, secondly, to why this is urgent and why standing orders need to be suspended. It is because of the hopeless equivocation and spinelessness of the Labor Party and of the member for Watson in relation to this issue. It is amazing what $4.3 million worth of donations will do to your integrity. It's amazing what you are prepared to look away from when you get $4.3 million worth of donations. It's amazing how you are prepared to overlook violence and thuggery towards women when you get $4.3 million worth of donations.

When we were in government, we introduced a piece of legislation designed to deal with this. We said this:

There are various circumstances that might give rise to a constituent part of an amalgamated organisation forming the view that the amalgamation is no longer serving the best interests of its members.

We were pointing to the simple fact that since there has been an amalgamation, and the thugs of the construction and maritime parts of the CFMEU have been part of a broader amalgamated union, there has been a continuing desire by those—

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