Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I remember from the estimates hearings which we recently conducted that evidence was given about a number of positions from the ABCC moving across to the Fair Work Ombudsman. So they are being given extra resources to pursue, whether it be employers, unions or workers who are doing the wrong thing on worksites. So I am very confident that the Fair Work Ombudsman does have the resources to pick up some of those roles that the ABCC previously played.

What we're about is making sure that important things that are actually reasonable in a workplace setting get pursued by the Fair Work Ombudsman, and that all the nonsense and politicisation that the ABCC was given taxpayers' funding for is going to end. That's what people voted for. We could not have been clearer in the lead-up to the election that we were going to abolish the ABCC. We feel that we've got a mandate to implement that reform now, along with all the other reforms that we're planning to implement. (Time expired)