Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I always supported the right for unions to demerge and I support this bill in allowing the manufacturers to be dissociated from the CFMEU. However, I'm unsure why this bill has to be so specific, instead of expanding the provision to allow demergers where members feel appropriate. Unions have an interest in remaining large, but as we've seen in the last few weeks, the size of the unions can actually have a perverse effect unrelated to the core responsibility of the union body. As such, when a significant share of a membership considers it no longer in their interest to be part of union membership—as the manufacturing arm of the CFMEU currently does—I believe they should be allowed to take steps to demerge.

Frankly, I support the coalition's previous legislation that allowed demergers of unions, and I stood against the government's repealing of this legislation. If they hadn't repealed this legislation we would not currently be in this situation where we have to pass this separate legislation. I'm not suggesting that we would see necessarily a lot of demerger activities but we do need to have broad demerger abilities in the union movement in Australia.

The issues that have been illuminated in this case underscore broader concerns that I have with the CFMEU in Australia. I'm genuinely concerned by the powers currently held by the CFMEU and am also concerned that it is an organisation that does not support the broader objectives of its members or the economy. The threats to the AFL, based on the hiring of Stephen McBurney, are absolutely unacceptable. There is no situation where that sort of thuggery and that sort of threat to something that is part of many, many Australian lives should be allowed to take place and that someone should have a leadership of such responsibility and feel so able to throw around power like that.

It comes to the issue—which I think is of great concern to me and many members of my community—of the housing crisis and the building crisis. We actually have a housing crisis, and that is a supply crisis and it is a building crisis, and I am deeply concerned that the last incident is just evidence of how the CFMEU is not working in the interest of the Australian economy and, frankly, Australians in general. Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis. This month we heard that Australia has three capital cities deemed to be impossibly unaffordable. In the past 20 years, house prices have increased by 193 per cent while wages have only grown by 81 per cent, meaning that young people are being locked out of housing.

The polity and certainly the experts agree that the best way to deal with unaffordability of housing in this country is to increase supply, but that is something we are desperately struggling to do and struggling because it is difficult. A significant part of that is about building costs. Given the issues that we have at different levels of government—and I acknowledge those—it is critical that we have confidence in the union movement in charge of delivering the homes of tomorrow because the actions and distractions of the last few weeks really cast that into serious doubt.

When I speak to developers, one of the biggest issues they have in getting housing supply movement going are the costs. Housing development costs have increased by 30 per cent since 2019 and I know construction businesses are doing it tough. ASIC data has shown increased insolvencies this year and they have been led by construction companies—the same companies that we are hoping desperately are going to build the buildings we need. While material costs are higher than pre-COVID, the labour costs are a significant part of this. I literally had someone come up to me the other day who works in the industry who said he is paying $250,000 a year for an engineering graduate with 10 years experience and paying $200,000 for a labourer with absolutely no experience on his sites. We've seen that in the Queensland government with some of the deals that they've done where, again, it's looking like the average wage on some of their sites is now 200 grand. I support every single person in Australia who works hard getting a great wage, but, unless we're getting incredible productivity gains from these extremely high pays, then we are not going to be able to build housing that is affordable for everyday Australians. I think this is an issue that the government absolutely need to face up to, as well as facing up to the issue that they have put a lot of money into public infrastructure, at all levels of government, which is actually crowding out the building of housing, which is what we absolutely need right now.

My expectation of the union movement is for them to work with government, to work with the construction companies and to be constructive around what every Australian needs, which is for us to be able to build the houses and the infrastructure that Australian people live in. I have severe doubts that the CFMEU, with the behaviour of its leadership, is able to play a constructive role in this space. This week shows that the organisation is even failing to serve its own members.

To wrap up: I would like to see the government allow unions to merge and demerge as appropriate. They should never have repealed the coalition's previous legislation, and I support the reintroduction of that legislation rather than dealing with this through ad hoc legislation. I support the call from a previous speaker for the government to no longer accept donations from the CFMEU when it continues to behave in a way that is so unacceptable to the broader Australian community. And I support the reinstatement of the Australian building and construction watchdog, because, frankly, we do need that sort of watchdog in the construction industry, particularly now, when the construction industry is critical to the future prospects and livelihoods of Australians who want desperately to have a home of their own.

Sitting suspended from 13:01 to 16:00

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