Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the acting Minister for Employment. Will the Minister update the House on the importance of ensuring safe and respectful workplaces? What action is the government taking in this area and what obstacles stand in the way?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mitchell for his question, because he—like me and I am sure all members of the House—believes that violence against women is something that everybody would deplore, whether that is violence in the home, in the workplace or elsewhere. At the moment, there is a large concentration on domestic violence, which is appropriate. But it is not just violence in the home that should be under the microscope: it is also violence in the workplace. So I was troubled to read on Monday in The Sydney Morning Herald the column by Paul Sheehan outlining the violent and misogynistic behaviour of rogue elements of the CFMEU. I would like to quote from some of the things that he wrote

He wrote:

The royal commission into union corruption has published evidence of Collier's intimidation of women on worksites. Last year, at the Barangaroo site in Sydney, he called a female inspector from Fair Work …

I will not repeat the words that he used to describe the female inspector. The article continues:

On July 24 last year, he harassed another female Fair Work inspector, and played the song Who Let The Dogs Out on a loud hailer when she entered a worksite.

These are not the only examples of violent and misogynistic behaviour. We have had run-throughs of Melbourne offices where a five-month pregnant woman was being threatened by rogue union leaders. We have had Nigel Hadgkiss, the head of the Fair Work Commission, complaining about his female staff being rung at home at night and abused by members of the CFMEU. In fact, CFMEU official Shaun Reardon made late-night threatening phone calls to a female Fair Work inspector, and a female Fair Work inspector was spat on by a CFMEU member on a construction site at Wooli Creek last year. The examples go on and on.

The government is trying to take action to shut down these rogue elements of the union movement. We are trying to bring back the Australian Building and Construction Commission. I call on the Leader of the Opposition to support the government in our campaign to bring back the ABCC rather than frustrate it in the Senate. We are also trying to establish the Registered Organisations Commission so that honest, fair union leaders are not smeared by the rogue, dodgy behaviour of the few. Again, I ask the Leader of the Opposition to support the government's measures in trying to bring back the ABCC and create the Registered Organisations Commission. Until he does, he stands condemned because he can be accused of standing behind this kind of appalling behaviour from the CFMEU, the MUA or whatever rogue union is under the microscope at a particular point in time. I call on him to change his position and support the government on both of those measures.