Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

I withdraw, Madam Deputy President. Suddenly the former party of workers has found itself in league with criminal thugs, and that has been verified in the Heydon commission. The CFMEU is a case in point. Last year around 100 CFMEU thugs were prosecuted or were facing prosecution for wreaking havoc on the nation's building sites, accused of more than 1,000 industrial breaches. The CFMEU and its officials have also been fined a total of around $7 million for industrial breaches which have been dealt with by the courts since 2002. Those brought before the courts have included the CFMEU's national secretary, Michael O'Connor, brother of Labor's shadow minister for employment and workplace relations, no less. They have also included construction division head David Noonan and New South Wales and Queensland secretaries Brian Parker and Michael Ravbar. 'Violence', 'extortion', 'blackmail' and 'intimidation' are words used repeatedly in the media and in the Heydon commission. Court case after court case has shown that this union is so corrupt that it makes the teamsters union under Jimmy Hoffa look like the Sisters of Mercy.

I am sure there are some decent and honest Labor senators here, and they privately are appalled by the conduct of CFMEU thugs and feel just as strongly as I do that this corruption must be brought to book. In fact, some have said so, but they are silenced by a Labor leadership that has its own history of union corruption and is beholden to corrupt union bosses even now.

What wider opposition to last year's registered organisations commission bill revealed, however, is how the corrupt tentacles of this organisation have spread to non-Labor organisations which the CFMEU has bribed and co-opted to its cause. The CFMEU tentacles reach into parties in this chamber and individual members. However, the reach of the CFMEU's tentacles does not stop there. In 2010 alone, the CFMEU donated $1.2 million to extreme left-wing activist group GetUp!—