Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I note the Prime Minister's long and close association with the lawless and criminal CFMMEU. I also note that the Labor Party has received over $10 million from the CFMMEU since the watchdog was last abolished by Labor. Last week, the Federal Circuit Court gave the maximum penalty to a CFMMEU official for breaching right of entry and making disgusting homophobic slurs to a safety adviser. Prime Minister, why are you compromising the right of people to feel safe at work at the behest of your union backers?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am asked about the ABCC and why my government supports abolishing the ABCC. I am also asked about donations in the construction sector. Let me tell you a little story about donations in the construction sector involving Hanssen Pty Ltd, which has donated at least $175,000 to the Liberal Party since 2014. In October 2016, Marianka Heumann, a 27-year-old German backpacker, tragically fell 13 storeys to her death on a Hanssen worksite. Employees were forced to continue working while Ms Heumann lay on the ground, covered with a sheet. Hanssen's company was fined $60,000 for health and safety violations, which Hanssen dismissed as a 'legal technicality'. This is what the judge said:

(Mr Hanssen) was blinded by his hatred of the applicants in preventing the taking of logical, rational and reasonable steps of entry and inspection that would have protected and assisted his employees. That was not to their benefit.

In 2018 the company was taken to court—by the union, not by the ABCC—for being knowingly involved in the underpayment of a backpacker under an alleged sham contracting arrangement. The case went to the High Court. It found that the backpacker employed by labour hire company Personnel Contracting was an employee covered by an award, not a self-employed contractor, as he had been designated. He'd been earning 25 per cent less than the award. You'd think that the ABCC might have taken action on that.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, after two minutes we've heard no reference to the $10 million of donations that the CFMMEU has made.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Resume your seat. The Prime Minister is talking about exactly the issue of donations.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In fact, that wasn't just one element of wage theft. PWC have estimated there is around $320 million of wage theft in the construction sector every year.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

By the CFMMEU, I assume.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They just expose their ideology day after day. Since it was established, the ABCC has recovered $5 million, representing just $1 million for every year. So there was $320 million of wage theft, and $1 million recovered. But we don't hear anything about that from those opposite, just like we don't hear anything about the 116 deaths in the construction industry since the reintroduction of the ABCC in 2016. (Time expired)