George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I can, and regrettably there have been more recent findings by courts, particularly the Federal Court, into union misbehaviour and thuggery than I can deal with in two minutes. For example, in April the Federal Court was dealing with a matter involving the CFMEU. Justice Tracey imposed a fine of $43,000 on CFMEU officials for unlawful and coercive behaviour, one instance of which was constituted by a CFMEU official abusing a person in the workplace in obscene language and threatening to blockade all of that company's sites. In another recent case, from Adelaide, there was footage of a CFMEU official berating a Fair Work Commission official who attended the site. Justice White of the Federal Court found—these are His Honour's words, not mine—that the CFMEU official's:

… stance and manner was provocative, bullying and intimidating. It is evident that he sought to belittle and humiliate …

As recently as last Friday, Justice Logan, in the Federal Court in Brisbane, penalised the CFMEU and CFMEU officials a total of $540,000 for unlawful behaviour at the construction site of housing for the long-term homeless in Queensland. Justice Logan called out the CFMEU's outrageous disregard of the law and reiterated the comments of other judges and Royal Commissioner Cole in condemning the union's attitude to the law. In May last year, Justice Tracey again, in separate Federal Court proceedings, found that the CFMEU had brazenly broken the law in trying to pressure Hazell Bros Group to sign its EBA. I could go on. I have pages and pages of instances. (Time expired)