Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Child Protection and the Prevention of Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government has been and will always work for its union masters because the union pays its bills. Therefore, for Labor, the unions must come first. In the case of the CFMEU, its interests come before developers building the road and transport infrastructure we all depend on, before those who invest in apartment complexes, shopping centres and public infrastructure like hospitals and schools, before Mum-and-dad investors, before retirees relying on the best possible returns on their hard-earned superannuation nest egg, before medium, small and family businesses that bring the building projects to life and the workers they employ, who rely on the prosperity of those businesses for their pay. Before all of them and before the interests of everyday Australians, the Australian Labor Party puts the CFMEU first.

Australians would not even be aware that most senators on the other side in this chamber are here because of their union links. Those opposite would find it difficult to argue against the claim that at least 70 per cent of the Labor Senate party room either has worked for or is closely affiliated with a union. In the 2022 federal election, the union spent $37 million on donations, campaign materials and election advertising, including $16 million in direct payments to the Labor Party. A third of those donations were from the CFMEU. The Australian Labor Party's dismantling of industry watchdog the ABCC, its go-slow on acting on the CFMEU until the public interest made it impossible to ignore and its connections to the CFMEU explain why this legislation in its current form is designed to put the interests of the CFMEU first.

That's why the coalition will propose a number of amendments to make this bill better and give greater confidence that the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union cannot re-engage in the same behaviour—though it won't fix the harm already inflicted on so many. Labor ministers have known about that behaviour for a very long time but only now are decrying an abhorrent and intolerable culture in the CFMEU.

The allegations as to the CFMEU are of systemic corruption and unlawful conduct, including corrupt payments; physical and verbal violence; intimidation; abuse of right-of-entry permits; secondary boycotts; breaches of fiduciary duty and contempt of court. For so long, powerful political friends paved the way for former secretary John Setka to become even more fearsome and brazen. You need look no further than the CFMEU recently taking on the AFL, seeking to sack its chief umpire and the former chair of the ABCC because he dared bring forward evidence of the CFMEU's bullying, thuggery and intimidation to the courts, which found the CFMEU had breached the Fair Work Act in 91 per cent of cases. John Setka threatened to 'pursue anti-union, anti-worker' Australians 'like him', and said, 'We will until the end of the earth,' and threatened to 'cost the AFL a lot of money' if they didn't meet his demands. Almost every Australian watching that saga play out, I'm sure, was astonished.

As shadow minister for child protection and the prevention of family violence, I found it appalling to see in recent sittings the Australian Greens and the Labor Party ignore the CFMEU's shameful treatment of women. The female-dominated Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union merged with the CFMEU in 2018, but wanted to back out in February 2024. Their wishes, though, were voted down in this Senate chamber by the Australian Greens and the Labor Party. Other separate matters involving the mistreatment of women were also publicly vented. Minister Watt may be the new Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, but these issues are not new to him. Yet he and his colleagues would have you believe that this is all new.

The clampdown on the CFMEU should have happened years ago. There was evidence for action. There was opportunity for action. The Labor Party would have none of it. In 2022, the South Australian Labor Party confirmed that the Victorian CFMEU's donation of $125,000 would be returned days after the Setka-led Victorian branch took control of the South Australian branch. In South Australia they knew it was unconscionable to keep the money, and South Australians would have responded with anger had they done so. That's what drove the return of the money: fear of public backlash—nothing else. The federal government could and should have done the same, but it didn't and it's still saying it won't.

Master Builders in South Australia were onto the risk of the CFMEU muscling in on South Australia and had been ever since Labor abolished the ABCC. 'There's a lot more pressure on people in construction in South Australia to do what the union wants them to do,' CEO Will Frogley told the Advertiser two years ago. In a mysterious coincidence, a decapitated Kermit the Frog puppet was left on the fence of Frogley's family home, and Master Builders' cars and property were vandalised.

Master Builders South Australia represents over 2,500 builders, specialist contractors, suppliers and manufacturers—hardworking Australians, hardworking South Australians. Last year I stood in this chamber to share an example of how the CFMEU was flexing its muscles in holding South Australian businesses to ransom. An agreement brokered by the John-Setka-led CFMEU included a swag of bonus allowances at a Wingfield crane firm that included $10 for each day workers arrived at work on time and wearing the correct uniform. Extraordinary! That's not reasonable; nor is it fair.

The same year, the CFMEU spent thousands of its members' money to wrap an Adelaide tram in the union's slogan: 'A union of opportunity'. It was a blatant membership drive of the CFMEU and a breach of SA government rules, but the CFMEU carried on regardless.

The CFMEU has driven, and always will drive, Labor Party policy and action. This bill is Labor admitting they have failed. They were warned in this parliament by industry, by regulators and by the courts. This bill seeks to reverse the vengeful acts the Prime Minister has made against the ABCC since he was elected. One of his tasks when he came into government was to get rid of the watchdog, the ABCC. As Jennifer Westacott, the former Chief Executive of the BCA, said at the time:

Australians should have safe jobs, well paid jobs and rewarding jobs, but the government's radical shake-up of the industrial relations system will not deliver that.

These changes will create confusion and extra costs … make it harder to hire casual workers and create uncertainty for employing anybody.

Any government that's serious about cost of living would not do this.

As it is, any government that is serious about the cost of living would also have acted on the CFMEU and its activities a long time ago. But, without accountability, we have seen criminal activity, threats, corruption, bribery, intimidation, violence, bullying, standover tactics, misappropriation of funds and other accusations of lawlessness by the CFMEU, and we've had skyrocketing costs that have seen Australian taxpayers forking out up to 30 per cent more on major projects. South Australia has had some pretty significant infrastructure projects too. Perhaps the government there might want to do a bit of work to find out how much extra the CFMEU's involvement in South Australia has added to those major projects.

The inaction by the Albanese government until now has had perverse and far-reaching upstream and downstream consequences, even for those not directly associated with the CFMEU. It is one of the many reasons that business failures in South Australia soared 70 per cent early last year and are expected to get worse. And those failures are replicated right across Australia. Action against the militant CFMEU should have been taken a long time ago. This bill doesn't respond to the appalling actions of the CFMEU. All the Albanese Labor government is seeking to do is to get its own handiwork out of the headlines, out of the news cycle.

The coalition's amendments seek to do more than the Albanese government is prepared to do. These amendments will make the bill better. They include the minister not having the ability to end the administration early; any variation to the scheme of administration must be agreed by the Federal Court, not the minister. Political donations, political campaigns and advertising by the CFMEU should be explicitly banned during the period of administration. The administrator must provide a written report to parliament every three months and appear at Senate estimates. A new fit-and-proper-person test is to be introduced for all CFMEU delegates and officers. Members should expect no less.

The cost of fixing the CFMEU mess should not be borne by the Australian taxpayer. The administrator should be given additional powers to investigate dealings between the CFMEU and other parties, including other registered organisations and political parties. With these changes, the Albanese Labor government has the opportunity to do what it said it would and truly crack down on CFMEU misconduct—but I'm not going to hold my breath, and nor should Australians.

The bill presented before us today falls well short of what is needed and what everyday, hardworking Australians should expect from their government. This bill, and the government's response to the CFMEU, confirms that Labor will continue to put their union masters first. For everyday Australians, hardworking Australians, hardworking small businesses, family businesses, investors and those retirees waiting for their superannuation funds to be maximised so they can enjoy their hard work in retirement—well, let's hope these amendments will be accepted so they don't have to watch, yet again, the Labor Party put union masters first and Australia's interests last.