Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to commend the government's determination to bring back the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which will help battle union corruption in electorates across the country including my electorate of Corangamite. When the ABCC was in place, it resulted in fewer days lost due to union industrial actions. It also ensured a greater degree of confidence in our very important building and construction sector.

What we are doing is keeping our commitment to bring back the ABCC with full power, full authority and full funding. When the ABCC was in place it resulted in nine per cent productivity growth in the construction industry and $7.5 billion in consumer savings. The ABCC was prepared to prosecute and punish company officials and dramatically attack union corruption and union unlawfulness on worksites across Australia.

In Victoria, around 10 per cent of Victorians work in building and construction. We have a major issue. The cost of construction runs at about 20 per cent to 30 per cent higher than it should. Recently we announced a wonderful story in the Geelong region, the establishment of 50 new jobs at Little Creatures brewery in Geelong in my home state of Victoria. Little Creatures, by Lion, made an investment of $60 million and created 50 new jobs, but they went through hell and back to open their business and to employ people who live in the Geelong region. They endured union pickets, which were unlawful. There was some terrible conduct. They had to go to court and they got orders, yet the conduct continued. In fact the CFMEU and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union were ordered by the Supreme Court not to picket and not to prevent free access to the site or cause anyone to hinder work at the site, yet that conduct continued.

Similarly, Boral have endured a terrible time working on a very important project in Victoria, the multibillion-dollar regional rail link. Since the middle of 2012, the CFMEU has run an orchestrated and costly campaign against Boral because it has refused to give in to demands by the union to stop doing business with the Grocon group. This conduct is unlawful and our current system is too cumbersome and too slow to deal with the unlawful conduct of unions such as the CFMEU.

According to Boral's CEO, Mike Kane, company trucks have been stopped. Its workers have been intimidated. Drivers have been harassed and threatened and many of its clients have been warned by union officials against doing business with Boral. This unlawful campaign has cost of Boral more than $10 million in lost sales and legal fees.

As for Grocon, the CFMEU has waged a 12-year war against Grocon. It has waged industrial strife and terror on Grocon, an incredibly important company in Victoria. This is utterly unacceptable. We are tackling the hard questions. The Australian Building and Construction Commission will call this unlawful behaviour to account. We are not talking about good working men and women who are members of unions. I was once a member of the union; unions do some very good work. But some of these union bosses have overstepped the line to the point where they are wreaking havoc on the Victorian economy.

We are very proud of our commitment to stamp out unlawful union conduct and to build confidence in the building and construction industry in Victoria and across Australia. Equally, we are also very proud of our announcement that we will hold a royal commission into trade union governance and corruption. So we are tackling the hard questions. We are working on building productivity. We are fighting for jobs and we are very proud of our commitments.

Question agreed to.

House adjourned at 17:00