Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday the Federal Court handed down yet another series of fines to our friends in the CFMMEU. Fines to the value of some $486,500 were handed down to the CFMMEU and five officials. Now, this was the fifth-largest fine that the CFMMEU have received since 2016, and in that time they have racked up $17 million in fines for absolutely recalcitrant behaviour. Those opposite shake their heads. It's very interesting—$17 million in fines.

Mr Deputy Speaker O'Brien, you know that once upon a time in my history I was actually a builder by trade, so I know their modus operandi. One of the most important parts of a building site or a building construction project is when you pour concrete. What the CFMMEU do is they blockade the gates of the building site, and this is what they did to receive these fines. They do this when they're either about to start a pour or when they're doing a pour. This costs the project millions of dollars, depending of course upon the size of the project. It also costs mum-and-dad subcontractors who are working on that site lost time in wages.

On this building site, the Barangaroo site, the CFMMEU harassed and prevented people from entering into the site when they were doing this pour. They hurled abuse at anybody who tried to get into the building site, calling them 'effing scabs' and 'filthy dogs'. Official Luke Collier knowingly encouraged illegal action saying, 'Don't worry boys, there's not enough coppers here to take us all away.' Officials were attempting to coerce De Martin & Gasparini into a CFMMEU approved enterprise bargain agreement. Judge Nicholas Manousaridis said that while officials admitted their illegal behaviour, they showed absolutely no signs of contrition.

Just have a think about how much money the CFMMEU donate to the Labor Party. They donate, on average, $1 million to the Labor Party every single year, and the Labor Party continue to take their money, their blood money, because that's exactly what it is. Those opposite and everybody else in here rightly condemned domestic violence, but it's time for those opposite to condemn industrial violence, which is done by the CFMMEU on an industrial— (Time expired)