Glenn Lazarus (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will be supporting this motion. However, I am calling on Labor and the union sector to ensure any union members who are currently under investigation for any form of misconduct are stood down immediately until they are cleared of any wrongdoing. As the chamber is aware, I am calling for the ABCC to be broadened from union behaviour to include corporate behaviour and corruption. Large building companies are not angels in the building and construction sector. They are complicit in the many issues raised in the trade union royal commission. They also need to start paying their fair share of taxes and stop sacking Australian workers and putting in cheap foreign labour.

I have been calling on the government to show me a redacted copy of the secret royal commission report and, to date, I have been told by the government that I will only be given access to an unredacted version. I am starting to become very, very suspicious. Is the government trying to protect big business caught up in corruption? Well, until I see this secret volume in its raw form, we will not know. Until the people of Australia are provided with a summary or a redacted version of the secret volume, the people of Australia will not know.

Regardless, Labor and the union sector cannot bleat on about the ABCC unless they start to show some leadership on the issue and demonstrate to the people of Australia that they are prepared to clean up their own backyards and stand down all those involved in alleged corruption.

Everyone seems to be forgetting something: we are here to protect Australian workers, no-one else. So I say to government and to big business, unions and the Labor Party: clean up your act. Show me the secret volume to prove you are not trying to hide corporate corruption in the building and construction sector. Show Australians a summary or a redacted version of the secret report to prove to the people of Australia you are prepared to be transparent and honest. Stand-down any union official or member involved in alleged corruption until they are cleared. Only when these things happen can we have an honest and open debate about whether we need the ABCC. At the very least, I want all my issues to be considered by any committee established to analyse the ABCC bill to ensure Australian workers are put first before anything else.