Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on the government's achievements? How are those achievements, including reinstating the Australian Building and Construction Commission, delivering stronger economic growth and benefiting hardworking Australians?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. Here on the last day of the parliament in 2016 the government is delivering on its national economic plan. We took our plan to the Australian people, to the election, and we won. Central to our plan was restoring the rule of law in the building and construction sector—eight per cent of GDP, 1 million Australians working in it, 300,000 small businesses—that has been terrorised by a lawless union defying the courts and defying the fines, which had been cut by two-thirds by the Leader of the Opposition when he was the employment minister. The Leader of the Opposition, when he was the employment minister in the Gillard government, rolled out the red carpet for the CFMEU—not like Bob Hawke, who stood up to the lawless elements of the building industry and deregistered the BLF. The Leader of the Opposition defends the CFMEU just like he defends Craig Thomson, Kathy Jackson and Cesar Melhem, his hand-picked successor. This is a man who has hand-picked two Labor figures—one, Cesar Melhem, who is being investigated for corruption right now and who has gone into the Victorian parliament—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

Before I call the Manager of Opposition Business, the level of interjection is far too high. The member for Chifley will cease interjecting. Member for Chifley, just keep your lips together and don't move them—just for five minutes. The member for Rankin is warned. The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on direct relevance, the Prime Minister should be able to make three minutes on his own achievements, and, if he cannot be relevant for three minutes on his own achievements, it says it all.

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

The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Prime Minister has the call.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can understand why the member for Watson would be ashamed of the way in which the Leader of the Opposition has been so careless of the rule of law that not only did he choose Cesar Melhem to succeed him in the AWU; he supported him going into the Victorian parliament and then hand-picked Kimberley Kitching into the Senate, who was recommended for investigation for prosecution by the DPP for fraudulently filling in other people's right-of-entry forms, in defiance of safety conditions. And the Leader of the Opposition has not once stated how he satisfied himself that those findings by the Heydon royal commission were wrong. He has not been able to satisfy himself of that; he does not care. He does not care about the two million members of trade unions. He does not care about the lawlessness in the construction sector.

We do. We have stood up for those members. We have stood up for the workers in the construction sector. We are restoring the rule of law, just like we protected tens of thousands of owner-drivers from the Transport Workers Union when we abolished the RSRT, just like we protected 60,000 volunteer firefighters from a takeover from another militant union. The Labor Party of today is a wholly owned subsidiary of militant trade unions. The only parties that stand for their members are the coalition.