Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You have just shown your colours, and you are a Victorian too. You know only too well the goings-on, the culture and the illegalities that the royal commission found in Victoria. I am going to run out of time, but Mr Lloyd, the former Australian Building and Construction Commissioner, said in his last annual report, which has just been handed down:

The performance outlined in this report demonstrates that unlawful conduct continues. This is especially so in Victoria. Victoria is responsible for 61 per cent of legal proceedings commenced during 2009-10. Similarly, Victoria represents 40 per cent of investigations and 68 per cent of compulsory examinations. Also, Western Australia continues to be overrepresented in ABCC data.

It is unclear exactly why this situation persists. The construction unions and some contractors appear committed to continue unlawful practices and possibly regard prosecution by the ABCC as an acceptable business risk.

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The attainment of the outcomes is a credit to ABCC staff. They are professional and dedicated. Some encounter abuse, taunts, being photographed and physical provocation when going about their work. On occasions this has involved assaults, matters that are and will continue to be reported to the Police.

And he expressed his appreciation of the police.

So Victoria, I repeat, was the epicentre of the Cole royal commission and it still is after so many years of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. Yet, as a payback to the union for their $64 million in the 2007 campaign and less obviously in the 2010 campaign, for the money they give the Labor Party and for the outright control that they have of the Labor Party not just at a national conventions, which we know is up to 50 per cent of the vote, but in the preselections of all of those on the other side—every single one of them belongs to a union; it is compulsory—this legislation will make its way back to this chamber and will, with the support of the Greens, be in danger of passing the Senate.

This concerns me greatly. It concerns me not just because of the lawlessness and not just because of the knock-on costs to households, small businesses and small and large developers. It has a productivity effect over the whole economy, not just in Victoria. Enough evidence came out of the Senate inquiry into this in 2009 and from independent sources such as the Bureau of Statistics and other economic data. I will refer to the report of the Senate Standing Committee on Economics from September 2009. It states that, over the seven years that the commission has been operating, there has been a 10 per cent increase in the industry productivity. Even the weekly wages in the industry have increased because of productivity, because the strike numbers are down, because the corruption is down, because the payoffs are down and because work is being finished on time or ahead of time in some cases. Because of the watchdog with teeth watching over this industry these have been the knock-on effects.

It is such a large industry that if costs start to blow out because of lawlessness, because of strikes, because of slow work days and because of increases, you will get a CPI increase. The economic data shows that the CPI has been positively affected. It is some 1.2 per cent lower than it would have been had the watchdog not been on the prowl.

With only a minute or so to go, I signal my deep concern that post July this legislation will be rushed through the parliament as a payback to the unions. It will have devastating effects on my state of Victoria in the building and construction industry. It will return all of the intimidation, lawlessness, the crime and the corruption. We have already got it at a certain level. Without the watchdog it will explode. We already have the Mick Gattos wandering around. He even has to be careful. We have even got the sycophants to the Mick Gattos from the larger companies.

This is not just about unions, but predominantly it is about the corruption and the lawlessness of the unions. There is a lot corruption and lawlessness by some of the big construction companies too. There are a lot of them that hire the Mick Gattos of this world. There are a lot of them that allow the criminality onto their sites. As John Lloyd rightly said, they seem to think it is a legitimate risk. We have to take that legitimate risk away from them for the sake of the public.

So I alert the Senate to this. I condemn the Labor Party. Someone from the other side should just stand up and condemn this legislation and this policy that will be coming up, I am sure, after July.