Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Energy. I ask the minister if he will advise the House of how the Australian Building and Construction Commission would support Australia's energy sector and international competitiveness, and is the minister aware of any alternative approaches that would jeopardise industry and the jobs it creates for hardworking Australians?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Menzies for his question and acknowledge that, as a former minister for employment and workplace relations, he is absolutely committed to improving the—

Dr Chalmers interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Rankin will cease interjecting.

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

lawful activity on our building sites and increasing the productivity on our building sites.

I am asked about the energy sector. It employs more than 200,000 Australians, together with the resources sector. It is worth some 10 per cent of GDP. It earns billions of dollars worth of export income and, in the gas sector alone, over the last decade, we have seen more than $200 billion worth of investment, particularly in LNG. There is more to come, because the International Energy Agency estimates that the demand for gas internationally will increase by some 48 per cent between now and 2040. But there is something that is holding back Australia from getting a bigger piece of this pie, and it is the lawlessness that we are seeing in the construction sector. It is the high prices that are being paid because of the unlawful activity.

Recently the BCA, the AIG group and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry came together and, in a joint statement, talked about how the illegal behaviour in our construction sector adds significantly to costs. We know those additional costs to be some 30 per cent—that is 30 per cent to build more pipelines, 30 per cent to build more LNG plants, 30 per cent to build more mines, 30 per cent to build more roads. That is why we need the Australian Building and Construction Commission back in business. It produced a some $6 billion annual productivity dividend when it was in place and, since its abolition, there has been a 40 per cent increase in industrial disputation. We have seen that on sites like Gorgon, Wheatstone and Ichthys. On the Wheatstone site, a CFMEU member was found guilty of the Fair Work Building Construction Agency of what they termed 'deplorable and obscene contraventions', and ones that had a particularly racist overtone.

Members of the party of those opposite, like Martin Ferguson, have said we need a policeman back on the beat, and that it is time to bring back stability and decency to the construction sector. Those were his words. So my message to the Leader of the Opposition is this: say no to your paymasters in the CFMEU. Say no to bullying activity. Say no to illegal behaviour. Say no to contraventions and say no to the thuggery and intimidation. And say yes to lower costs in the construction industry, better prices and a better deal for consumers, for households and for Australian businesses.