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

Thank you, Mr President. As is the long-held position of the coalition government, we believe that everybody in Australia has the right to go to work, every single day, in a workplace that is free from harassment, bullying and intimidation and, in particular, inappropriate behaviour.

A recent example of inappropriate behaviour is, unfortunately, within the construction sector. This is evidenced by the actions of CFMEU official Scott Vink, recently fined $9,000—yet another CFMEU official who has been fined by the courts. This was a fine by the Federal Circuit Court, recently, for unlawful workplace breaches and it was described by the court as 'sheer thuggery'.

The court heard Mr Vink entered the Pacific Fair shopping centre redevelopment site in Queensland, in March 2014, and went to a shed set aside for workers' smoko breaks. What did he do, then? He began removing belongings of non-union members, including lunches from the refrigerator, and just chucking them outside because, apparently, that is what you do when you go onto a work site—he was approached by a site manager and was found by the court to have used 'foul and aggressive language towards employees' and acted in an 'angry and abusive manner' towards those employees—and what he, then, did was place a padlock on the shed, preventing access to non-members.

One of the critical facts that Mr Vink overlooked during this exchange was that the shed on the site had been provided for the use of all the site workers. It was not the property of the CFMEU. The court, basically, said that his behaviour was designed 'to intimidate the employees and to reinforce to others at the building site the notion that non-union membership is not going to be tolerated'.