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

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry representing the Minister for Employment. Will the minister update the House on the government's commitment to the Australian Building and Construction Commission? And is the minister aware of any opposition to the return of the rule of law to the building and construction sites around the country?

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

I thank the member for his question. What more evidence does the Leader of the Opposition need that he has to deal with this CFMEU problem? It is extraordinary that yesterday the Victorian secretary of the CFMEU, John Setka, said of the Australian Building and Construction Commission inspectors:

Let me give a dire warning to the ABCC inspectors: be careful what you do.

…   …   …

We're going to expose them all.

We will lobby their neighbourhoods. We will tell them who lives in that house.

…   …   …

They will not be able to show their faces anywhere. Their kids will be ashamed of who their parents are …

John Setka, a man who was being praised yesterday by the member for Bendigo in this House, has uttered unAustralian terms. They are reprehensible terms. They are intimidation of the worst kind. It is remarkable that they would be defended by anyone.

The member for Grayndler knew what to say. He was on radio with me this morning and he said, 'The idea that people should be targeted is completely reprehensible.' He is absolutely right. All the Leader of the Opposition could manage was, 'I and federal Labor disassociate ourselves with what was said.' There was no condemnation of the CFMEU and no condemnation of John Setka. He is simply trying to hang on to his umbilical-cord-like attachment to the CFMEU and John Setka and to their money, the $3 million of donations that the CFMEU has made to the Labor Party since the Leader of the Opposition was leader in 2013. If he really meant it, if he really wanted to stand up for law-abiding Australians rather than the CFMEU, for Australians who are just doing their jobs every day, he would refuse to take any more donations from the CFMEU. He would disaffiliate the CFMEU from the Labor Party. He would not allow the CFMEU to sit in policy forums, deciding policy for the Labor Party and preselection for the people who sit in this House and in other parliaments around Australia. But he will not do that, because he is no Bob Hawke. Bob Hawke said as recently as last year:

I wouldn't tolerate it. You know what I did with the Builders Labourers Federation—I would throw them out.

Bob Hawke knows how to lead the Labor Party, not this Leader of the Opposition. This Leader of the Opposition is a lion in Canberra, talking about workers rights, but he is a mouse in Melbourne Trades Hall.

Mr Rob Mitchell interjecting—

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

The member for McEwen is warned.