Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Here we see on display the highest example of a protection racket that has been run for the thuggery, the abuse and all the examples of the worst parts of the union movement. As my colleagues have said, and as Senator Roberts said, there are some wonderful examples of unions that are organising appropriately, that represent their workers and that, frankly, do a good job. My wife has worked as a nurse for many years, and she was part of the nursing union over there in Western Australia. She was represented well by that union, I must say.

But we're hearing no mention at all—or even the utterance—of the CFMMEU. You can't bring yourself to recognise that organisation because you're ashamed of it. Any time there's a photo put up you say, 'Quickly, hide it away, I don't want to be seen with these people.' You don't want to be seen with these sorts of people. The utter shame of the examples that are being set here in this place is absolutely terrible. The lack of shame on this topic is genuinely unmatched.

I thought that we might see the ABCC, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, slowly stripped of its powers, maybe over a few years or even a few months, Senator Brockman—through you, Chair. But what we're seeing is rapid progress towards its abolition. They are getting rid of this cop on the beat that would have served an important role in preventing the incidents that Senator Cash was speaking about. Those examples weren't just anecdotes; they were found to be true, having come through the courts. Even the highest court in our land has found that these cases of gross thuggery, abuse and intimidation in workplaces are real. These are not just anecdotes brought up by sectional interests. This has actually been found to be true by the High Court. We thought we might see the ABCC slowly stripped of its power, bit by bit and be quietly whittled away to become a much smaller body over time. How wrong was I?

The members and senators involved in the ABCC—senators and members among those opposite—want to strip the ABCC of its power and of its role in ensuring that workplaces are safe in our construction industry. They don't have a plan to deal with inflation. They don't have a plan to deal with the cost-of-living pressures. We heard from Minister Watt, the agriculture minister last week—and he tried to explain his way through it this week—that they have no plan to deal with the FMD situation which poses a real threat to farmers across our country. They have no plan for FMD, but they do have a plan to allow lawlessness to continue in this country on building sites. They have a plan to have lawlessness continue to occur on building sites, where thuggery occurs and where there's abuse of workers. That continues to go unfettered. That can continue to go on in workplaces because they want to strip away the powers of the ABCC and, in fact, abolish it.

They don't have a plan to deal with the economy or a plan to deal with inflation, but they've got plan to get rid of the ABCC. They have a fully formed plan to hand the CFMMEU a free rein on building sites again—an unbelievable, yet somehow totally unsurprising, set of priorities from the ALP. When it comes to the union movement, it seems that crime really does pay. What we know is that the CFMMEU, in particular, is one of the biggest donors to the ALP, feeding their election campaigns. Is this why we're seeing that crime does pay? You've got an example here of a protection racket that's being run.

On the day after the announcement of the ABCC's abolition, a CFMMEU official was called out for appalling abuse and intimidation of workers, yet they're persisting. You might think they would check themselves. After making an announcement about getting rid of the ABCC, you would have thought they might check themselves, but no. It becomes clearer and clearer that the ALP doesn't stand up for workers. They stand up for the unions—unions that cover less than one in 10 private sector employees. Workers don't want to be physically intimidated and abused at work. They want to go about their jobs safely and, importantly, without intimidation. Imagine going to a job and thinking: 'Is today going to be the day when I'm going to get abused again? Will today be the day when I'm going to be confronted by someone who will intimidate me, pull me down, ridicule me and make me feel unsafe in the workplace?' That's what, sadly, too many of our workers across this country have to put up with, particularly on construction worksites.

The Labor Party is stripping back the very watchdog that is working to prevent this thuggery and these shameful acts that occur on these worksites. Do you know who is standing up for workers? It's the ABCC. While the unions run around racking up fines and disrupting workplaces, the ABCC, since it was re-established in 2016, has recovered over $5 million in unpaid wages and entitlements for construction workers. Funny—you'd think that would be the something a union should be doing. But, no, it's actually the ABCC, and this is only since 2019. Since 2019, over $13½ million in progress claims for subcontractors have been recovered.

Prime Minister Albanese and Labor talk a big game. They come in here and talk about wage theft. They voted against our bill when we were in government to criminalise wage theft and now they want to abolish the ABCC, who have recovered millions of dollars in wages and entitlements for Australian workers. I don't have time today to go through every egregious example of the CFMEU's abuse of power and people. Even if I only focused on the last few weeks, I wouldn't have enough time to uncover all that. I'd have to come in here with volumes to be able to cover the full extent of what we're seeing. We know that some of these unions are prepared to do anything; in fact, they'll justify breaking the law.