Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources) Share this | Hansard source

Well, the Mafia has nothing on the CFMEU. That is the kind of statement I'm getting from building contractors, from workers, from people in the community. This building came together in a bipartisan way to address workplace cultures. We passed legislation, codes of conduct. We are very conscious that we are holding ourselves out as the nation's example. We were here to call out any culture of intimidation, a culture of a fear of speaking out, a culture of discrimination, a culture of helplessness felt by recipients and victims of workplace abuse. Yet that bipartisan will to call out bad workplace culture evaporates when it comes to dealing with the kind of thuggery and intimidation on other workplaces across Australia.

When we talk to industry, when I talk to workers, about what is happening on work sites across Australia, they immediately ask for anonymity. That is their first request. They will say that bully boys do not belong. That request for anonymity proves we have an industrial environment where people are too scared to come forward, too scared to call out that sort of intimidation and thuggery. But through the prism of anonymity, they will tell the stories of what has been happening on the Cross River rail site in Brisbane. We have seen on TV the scuffles, the fights. What we don't always see is the workers being followed home and intimidated there. What we do not see is parents being sent photos of their children at school, with the insinuation being there will be a consequence for their children if they do not toe the union line.

Businesses are being intimidated into using certain contractors and being subject to outright vandalism and delays on their project when unions do not get their way. This includes things like the power supply to the site being cut, things like toilets being filled up with concrete and toilet paper to undermine all the plumbing work that has been done, doors being kicked off their hinges to demonstrate they are not fit for purpose. This is what is happening on building sites and it has been happening for decades. It is only now being brought to the notice of the public with a demand for a consequence for this outrageous behaviour. The malicious lodgement of ambit improvement notices aims to tie up companies in legal costs, where they have to go to the courts and have them proven as being unreasonable and thrown out so they do not receive consequences for future projects.

In my home state of Queensland, I heard stories of workplace health and safety inspectors who are on stress and sick leave because they have been bullied so much. How did we get to this situation? What it does is undermine every union in this country. Every union in this country who is represented by a union official sitting opposite has been undermined by the unwillingness of people to call out what has happened with the CFMEU.

We have watched the current minister, Minister Watt, spend almost his entire time in this place being the CFMEU's biggest cheerleader. We have seen it at Senate estimates, where he would mercilessly attack the building regulator when they dared to hold his mates at the CFMEU to account. Members of this government said, 'There is nothing to see. I had no knowledge of what was going on,' when it would have taken only the most cursory conversation with the construction site worker, a building contractor or even their CFMEU mates to know that this was a case. I thought it was extraordinary to see the tattoo that has been emblazoned across the chest of John Setka. That's terrifying. That's not something that should be around his neck.

Thank you, Senator. That is such intimidation. And it's not intimidation for those of us on the coalition side; that is a clear message to members of the Labor government that they are coming back to haunt you. I won't put up with that, and I hope you don't either. I say that because it has not been about fair pay; it has been about payoffs. When the government mandates 30 per cent pay hikes for these well-paid construction workers, what does it do then for nurses, police officers, childcare workers and teachers across the public and private sectors? They are not getting a 30 per cent pay rise. This is not about fairness; it's about payoffs.

Labor has brought forward this bill not because new information has been found out but because they have been caught out protecting the CFMEU. It has been a part of Labor's DNA to turn a blind eye to these intimidations and threats. It has been part of Labor's DNA to wilfully walk past behaviours that are, at their heart, criminal. Having wilfully turned that blind eye and having wilfully walked past those behaviours in clear sight, Labor now asks us to trust them and to trust their minister, who is the CFMEU's greatest cheerleader, to be the watchdog. We have no confidence that this minister intends to genuinely root out the evil that has existed in the heart of the CFMEU. Labor hasn't only been reliant on the support of the CFMEU; in many ways Labor has been a product of this support.

The coalition will hold the government to account. We will shine a light into the dark places that Labor has sought to keep hidden. We are proposing amendments to this legislation that will ensure that the administration must apply to all branches of the CFMEU for a minimum of three years—the minister should not have the ability to unilaterally end the administration early—and to ensure that the scheme of administration can be varied only by the Federal Court on the application of the administrator. The legislation must clearly set out what must be in the scheme of administration. It should not be determined solely at the whim of the minister, who has been the greatest cheerleader for the CFMEU. Political donations, political campaigns and advertising by the CFMEU should be explicitly banned during the period of administration.

Our amendments propose that, for the purposes of transparency, the administrator must provide a written report to the parliament every three months from the commencement of the administration about its activities and progress, and appear at Senate estimates. Further, a new 'fit and proper person' test must be introduced for all CFMEU delegates and officers, and I would hope that that would apply to all delegates and officers of all unions. The administrator should be given additional powers to investigate dealings between the CFMEU and other parties, including other registered organisations and political parties, and the administrator should be given the power to review and amend the CFMEU rules.

There are three things that we think must happen. We must bring back the ABCC. It was the only regulator of the construction union and the only one calling out this behaviour, and there were still intimidation, threats, thuggery, cost overruns, workers going on stress leave and damage to worksites. All that was still happening, so we must bring back an empowered ABCC. We must reintroduce the former coalition government's ensuring integrity bill, which Labor blocked in 2019.

These are just some of the things that would provide some protection to future workers in the construction industry and ensure that this doesn't lead further into civil contracting. We are seeing that play out right now. It's happened in Victoria. Queensland and New South Wales are the next battlegrounds to see that kind of intimidation, enforcement of subcontractors, overpayments and delays expand from the construction sector into civil construction. It's extraordinary that it has happened under Labor's watch, while they say, at the same time, 'There is nothing to see here.'

We owe it to workers, their families and their children to stop this culture of intimidation. It's a culture that is not acceptable in this place. It is not acceptable in any other workplace in this country, but, somehow, it has become acceptable in the construction industry to cover your face, shirtfront other workers, stop them going to work, verbally and—worse—physically assault them and then follow them home so you know where they and their children live. This has been documented and yet, kicking and screaming, Labor has been dragged to finally acknowledge what has been going on for years. We owe it to workers, their families and their children to stop this culture, but we also owe it to the taxpayers of this country because, every time this happens on site, every delay—such as the 13 weeks of stoppages on the children's hospital in Victoria—and every site that has been damaged or delayed results in inflated costs. Who pays? Maybe you think it's the big construction companies, but it is always the taxpayer, particularly on the construction of public assets.

In my home town of Townsville, the stadium overran by 30 per cent. Millions of dollars that was spent on building a stadium ran away from being spent in a hospital, on the roads or on other things that the Australian taxpayer deserved. They've paid for it. It's their money, and yet where has it gone? It's gone to cost overruns, bullying and intimidation on construction sites right across this country. Imagine what that would do to the budget. The Treasurer should get very excited about those kinds of savings.

Mostly we owe it to all Australians, who've said they want better. They want better in their workplaces and they want better from their leadership. They certainly don't want to have us and the Labor government continue to walk past behaviour that is not acceptable anywhere in the world. So we will be supervising and watching the minister. I'm deeply worried that what the minister is proposing—unilateral powers and the ability to pull up the administration at his discretion—is a veneer of taking action that is tissue-paper thin, and that it is not because new information has been found out but because Labor have been caught out protecting a union that funds them and that has possibly intimidated people sitting right here in this chamber. I hope that's not the case.

We will continue to provide a bright light to hold the minister to account, and we seek the support of others to make amendments to this legislation that will make it stronger and more powerful to protect the people specifically in the construction industry. Thank you.