Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Consultation: do you know who I think should have been consulted? I think the safety inspectors who were scared off worksites by CFMMEU violence should have been consulted. What an irony, what an absolute irony, that the situation is so bad on Queensland construction sites because of the activities of the CFMMEU. In my home state of Queensland, in Senator Watt's home state of Queensland, the situation got so bad that the Together union had to take protected industrial action so that their members, workplace health and safety inspectors, did not have to attend 17 construction sites in Queensland because of the violence, the intimidation, the bullying, the thuggish behaviour of the CFMMEU construction division. That's how bad it got. That's how bad it got in Queensland. The union representing the workplace health and safety inspectors had to take action to protect the workplace health and safety inspectors. That is how bad it got.

Maybe they should have been, Senator Watt, consulted. Maybe they should have been allowed to put on the public record what they've gone through in terms of dealing with this thuggish, brutish, bullying behaviour of the CFMMEU. But, of course, when the minister put out his media release on 24 July 2022, he didn't even mention the CFMMEU. It's not even mentioned in three pages. He couldn't even bring himself to mention the CFMMEU, because they're an embarrassment. They're an embarrassment for the Australian Labor Party because the ALP is institutionally incapable of dealing with their thug behaviour. Unlike former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who dealt with the BLF, the current day Labor Party is institutionally incapable of dealing with the construction division of the CFMMEU.

I asked the minister representing the relevant minister this week some questions arising out of what is referred to as the Boggo Road Cross River Rail case. For senators who don't come from my home state of Queensland, one of the most significant infrastructure projects occurring in Queensland at the moment, a multibillion-dollar construction project is the Cross River Rail. On 28 July 2022, the Federal Court brought down a judgement, last week, in relation to the CFMMEU. This is what the judge said. These aren't my words; these aren't a politician's words. These are the words of a member of the independent judiciary. 'I've take into account both the circumstances of the contravention itself and of each of the contraveners. There is clearly a persistent adherence to a strategy of noncompliance by all three respondents.' His Honour then quoted the High Court in the Pattinson case, which I referred to in this place last week: 'The greater financial incentive will be necessary to persuade a well resourced contravener'—that is, the CFMMEU—'to abide by the law rather than to adhere to its preferred policy and will be necessary to persuade a poorly resourced CFMMEU that its unlawful policy preference is not sustainable. The more determined a contravener is to have its way in the workplace and the more deliberate its contravention is, the greater will be the financial incentive necessary to make the contravener accept that the price of having its way is not sustainable.' That's what our High Court said. Maybe those opposite should have consulted the High Court or, at the very least, consulted the decisions of the High Court and the decisions of the Federal Court.

When I look at the history of these decisions, I have pages and pages of this stuff in relation to contraventions of the CFMMEU—pages and pages! I'm going to read out some—just some—of the Queensland infrastructure projects which have been impacted by unlawful behaviour of the CFMMEU. If those opposite had engaged in that reasonable consultation of the court decisions, they could have read it. They still can. The projects include the Enoggera army barracks, QUT Kelvin Grove campus, Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, Queensland's institute of medical research, the Bruce Highway Caloundra-Sunshine Coast upgrade, Legacy Way, Port Connect, Cairns Performing Arts Centre, Queensland Performing Arts Centre and Ronald McDonald House—even Ronald McDonald House, for goodness sake!