Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education, representing the Minister for Employment. Will the minister update the House on the action the government is taking to protect the rights of workers, honest union leaders and employers? What has been the catalyst for these measures and what hurdles do they face?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Forde for his question. I know he has a deep interest in helping and protecting good, honest union leaders, workers and employers, as opposed to protecting the protection rackets that we have seen from the Labor Party in the past.

The government has moved to limit the power of standover merchants and dishonest union officials, and to protect honest union leaders, workers and employers in three ways. We are trying to bring back the Australian Building and Construction Commission, we are trying to introduce the Registered Organisations Commission and we have established the royal commission into union corruption.

I think it is fair to say that right-thinking people everywhere have been shocked by the revelations in the royal commission in recent months and weeks: revelations about CFMEU intimidation; death threats links to bikie gangs and organised crime; drug selling; standover tactics; the silencing of potential witnesses; workplace bullying; and the list goes on. And yet, on the ABC's Insiders program the Leader of The Opposition refused to say that the CFMEU should disaffiliate from the ALP in Victoria and he refused to say that the ALP would not take the rivers of gold from the CFMEU in the future that they have taken in the past. In fact, the CFMEU has donated $5 million to the Labor Party in Victoria since 2007—$5 million! A good Leader of the Opposition and a good leader of the Labor Party would know that the first step would be to reject donations from the CFMEU and to join with his colleague in Victoria Andrew Daniels and reject the CFMEU as an affiliated union to the ALP in Victoria.

But no, the Leader of the Opposition's response has been to say that bikies should not wear their colours on building sites. That was the Leader of the Opposition's response! He is taking a tough-cop-on-the-beat approach. He says that bikies should not wear their colours on building sites. He is the dress police as opposed to a tough cop on the beat!

As a cabinet minister, in fact, the Leader of the Opposition was the one who abolished the Australian Building and Construction Commission. He was the one who abolished the existing Building Code and guidelines. He was the one who introduced open slather for the union leadership in right of entry onto workplaces. And if the Leader of the Opposition continues—if he is elected as Prime Minister—we know that three things will happen after the next election: the carbon tax will be brought back; the boats will start and the CFMEU will have a place at the cabinet table again, like they did under Bill Shorten when he was last the Minister for Workplace Relations.