Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, I can. The evidence for the need for the restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission is overwhelming. What we have, though, is a situation where the opposition and the Greens continue, despite this evidence, to support a culture of lawlessness in the construction industry. Can I give the Senate some examples of the type of behaviour which we on this side are trying to outlaw.

A female employee of an equipment hire firm in Queensland in 2012, when declining to sign a union EBA, was told by a BLF organiser:

You think it's—

expletive—

funny. If you don't—

expletive—

sign this I guarantee you won't be working on the Indooroopilly shopping centre site.

Then there is the case of Luke Collier, the CFMEU official who, at a Sydney building site in 2014, greeted a female Fair Work building and construction inspector using expletives and sexually derogatory terms. Collier also blasted a megaphone hailer within centimetres of the heads of two Fair Work inspectors and stated:

What are you looking at, you—

expletive—

dog? Do you think your phone number is all I've got.

Finally, and probably, quite frankly, one of the most disgusting examples, the commission also heard that, during the Grocon blockade by the CFMEU, a minibus driver who was suffering from cancer and who was attempting to leave the area had his van surrounded by CFMEU members, who punched the windscreen and yelled abuse. The CFMEU's Assistant Secretary, John Setka, yelled out, 'I hope you die of your cancer.' This is the response of the shadow minister, Brendan O'Connor: 'It's just a rough and tumble industry.' (Time expired)