Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a contribution to this debate on the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Administration) Bill 2024, although, in reality, it might be better named 'The placing the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff bill'. It is an example of the government acting hastily to try and address a mess largely of its own making. On 29 July, the minister, Senator Watt, became the responsible minister. I wish him well, because he has inherited a portfolio from his predecessor where the balance has completely tilted in favour of the power of the unions.

Everyone accepts in this place that Labor has had a close link with the union movement, which founded the ALP. As such, it should be in a prime position to strike a balance between employees and employers, with a view to productive and long-term stable jobs. However, there's been a monumental failure in one of the most vital sectors in building our country's productivity, the construction sector. Over one million Australians are employed in this sector, and many more are in industries which rely on and support it. It is a significant driver of our country's economic growth. Allegations of bullying, intimidation, standover tactics, bribery, retribution and other criminal activities by union officials of the CFMEU's construction division in Victoria have been downright frightening to hear about. Revelations that construction workers across the state were turning up to their worksites and enduring this type of harassment and abuse—let alone the allegations of criminal misconduct—should be an embarrassment to this Labor government. The media has well reported these allegations over several years; however, the government has now sought to introduce this bill to the Senate, after of its persistent failure to take action, because suddenly it realises the Australian public has had enough. The bill can only be described as a knee-jerk reaction that fails to provide any repercussions for the CFMEU and deter them from these activities.

This bill seeks to deregister the CFMEU and to place it under administration for three years. It also grants powers to the Fair Work Commission to give them the authority to appoint the administrator and direct the CFMEU to pay for the cost of administration. It is a temporary and weak piece of legislation. This temporary bill fails to send a strong message to the CFMEU that these types of behaviours are not acceptable. It doesn't apply any conditions or penalties to stamp out this behaviour once and for all. It has significant flaws and does not do enough to stamp out the corruption in the CFMEU for good, and it doesn't compel the union to make any changes at all at the conclusion of the administration period.

For example, this temporary bill states that the CFMEU will be deregistered for a period of three years with absolutely no conditions. That means there is no incentive for the union to make changes, and they don't need to provide any proof or documentation that they have made the changes. It provides a timeframe to allow the current leadership of the union to simply wait out their deregistration process until it expires, and then they can go straight back to resuming their previous conduct, allegedly engaging in criminal activity, harassing and bullying other workers, and misappropriating funds, some of which have been used to grant sizeable donations to the Labor Party's election campaigns and, it is evident, donations to the Australian Greens in the past.

The union movement was established to support employee rights. It was supposed to be for the worker, and many fine Australians have led unions with that ideal in mind. But that philosophy has been thrown away by the CFMEU, who have resorted to dirty tactics to get what they want. It was only a few months ago that the former state secretary of this union, John Setka, was filibustering and holding important AFL infrastructure upgrades, including the proposed development of Tasmania's Macquarie Point stadium, to ransom because of a personal stoush he apparently had with the head of the AFL's umpiring department, who is a former commissioner of the Australian Building and Construction Commission. It is rather extraordinary that an individual, a union official in fact, has so much clout that he can threaten to stall important infrastructure upgrades and hold them to ransom because of a 'professional' disagreement.

Let us not forget that the construction industry, particularly those who work in the commercial sector, rely on a steady pipeline of work and often transfer from one worksite to another. The actions taken by Mr Setka would have caused significant stress and uncertainty for those workers. Every worker on a construction site has the right to go to work and do that work in a respectful environment without the fear of thuggery, intimidation and bullying from a union that purports to support employees. This temporary bill does not go far enough to root out the corruption at the heart of the CFMEU and ensure that all workers can go to work without fear of harassment, intimidation or retribution for having a different opinion to the union.

We all have the right to go to work and not be bullied. In fact, this week is the national action week against bullying. If the Labor government were serious about drawing a line in the sand against this behaviour, they would consider adopting the coalition's amendments, as a first step, and support the referral of this matter to a Senate inquiry.

The CFMEU is a union with arms reaching far into the construction and building sector across the country. The Victorian branch, on which most of the allegations are centred, also runs the Tasmanian branch of the union. As a senator for Tasmania, that makes me particularly concerned that the behaviours and attitudes of the Victorian CFMEU branch have also filtered down to the Tasmanian branch, which is under its control. There are many honest and hardworking construction workers in Tasmania who may be members of the CFMEU, and I am heartened that so far there have been no specific allegations against Tasmanian CFMEU members. I believe it is important that a bill like this sends a strong message to all members of this union that this behaviour will not be tolerated by this parliament, anywhere across the country.

There needs to be an inquiry into this temporary bill, because we need to hear from the department, the Fair Work Commission and other stakeholders about how this proposed legislation will operate if it is enacted. We also need to hear from stakeholders about its effectiveness. Given the seriousness of the allegations, we need to ensure administration of this temporary bill is a transparent and independent process that reports to parliament regularly and sets clear objectives of how the CFMEU needs to change before it can be taken out of administration.

I am sure the families of those who are calling out the criminal behaviour of officials at the CFMEU, and those who have experienced the bullying, intimidation, death threats and other behaviour, would not feel that this bill goes far enough to ensure that the CFMEU truly changes its trajectory. There have been calls from within the industry for increased protections for whistleblowers, saying that they fear for their lives and for the retribution they will receive for speaking out against a union with a lot of political and professional clout. There is nothing in this temporary bill that describes how the administration process will provide protections for these whistleblowers, who have, quite literally in some cases, risked their lives to speak out against this behaviour.

Some stakeholders have suggested that officials who are found to have been engaged in bad behaviour should be held to account and have their status as a union official removed. That would be a far more effective deterrent than simply deregistering the CFMEU, which is the whole basis of this proposed legislation. It does nothing to allay the concerns of whistleblowers who have alleged criminal misconduct and the misappropriation of funds by members of the CFMEU; nor does it address the serious issues of donations to the Labor Party by this union.

Labor wants to rush this bill through—yesterday, if it could—without any scrutiny. If the Senate is to pass this temporary bill, it needs to be amended. After first sighting the bill on Monday of this week, by Tuesday afternoon, just 24 hours after receiving it, Senator Cash had reviewed the contents and the proposals within it and had issued a media release outlining a number of comprehensive amendments required to deal with the many flaws contained in the proposed legislation. Despite circulating several government amendments that simply fix the basic flaws identified in the drafting of the legislation, the minister now, 48 hours after receiving Senator Cash's proposed amendments, has still not agreed to the coalition's amendments. In her media release on Tuesday, Senator Cash noted:

The Government's Bill is so weak it could have been co-authored by the CFMEU.

It conveniently provides the Minister with far too much power, including the ability to end administration early. For example, if Labor were re-elected they could end the Administration the day after the election.

She goes on to point out:

Not surprisingly, the Bill is silent on the Labor Party receiving political donations from the CFMEU, despite the clear conflict this presents.

In reality, if Labor are serious about cleaning up the construction sector, they must bring back the ABCC, deregister the CFMEU and reintroduce the former coalition government's ensuring integrity bill, which Labor blocked in 2019. The ABCC need all the powers they had in the past, and more, so they can go after criminal activity in the industry. Penalties for breaches of the Fair Work Act need to be increased, and the fit-and-proper-person test for right of entry onto construction sites needs to be tightened. People with multiple criminal offences should never be granted right-of-entry permits.

In relation to this temporary bill before us, Senator Cash's media release outlines 20 key amendments that the coalition have proposed. They are crucial to the integrity of this bill, and, for clarity, I'll go through them. The administration must apply to all branches of the CFMEU for a minimum of three years. The minister should not have the ability to end the administration early. The scheme of administration can only be varied by the Federal Court on the application of the administrator. The legislation must clearly set out what must be in the scheme of administration; this should not be determined solely at the whim of the minister. Political donations, political campaigns and advertising by the CFMEU should be explicitly banned during the period of administration.

For the purposes of transparency, the administrator must provide a written report to parliament every three months from the commencement of the administration about its activities and progress and appear at Senate estimates. The administrator must be given the ability to impose longer expulsion or disqualification periods for officers, as opposed to the 'up to five years' as outlined in the legislation. A new fit-and-proper person test must be introduced for all CFMEU delegates and officers. The administrator must appoint a special-purpose auditor to examine the financial dealings of the CFMEU prior to the commencement of administration, with the cost of the special-purpose auditor paid for by the CFMEU, not by the taxpayer.

The special-purpose auditor's first report needs to be tabled by the final sitting day of 2024. The retrospective date must be changed from 17 July 2024 to a date prior to the resignation of Mr John Setka. The administrator must be given additional powers to investigate dealings between the CFMEU and other parties, including other registered organisations and/or political parties. The administrator, in undertaking their duty, should be able to investigate past practices of the CFMEU relating to unlawful conduct. The administrator should be given the power to review and amend the CFMEU rules. There needs to be the inclusion of an objects clause which outlines what the administrator needs to achieve before administration can cease.

The administrator must be given the power to apply for the deregistration of the CFMEU if appropriate. The administrator must be able to compel officers, employees and delegates of the CFMEU not to associate with an organised crime group or outlawed motorcycle gang. The administrator must have the ability to renegotiate EBAs. The administrator is required to exercise its functions with specific regard to the objects of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act with a focus on reducing the adverse effects of industrial disputation, ensuring the CFMEU, its officers, employees and delegates act in accordance with the law and promote a productive and harmonious construction industry. And, finally, the amendments will strengthen the powers of the administrator to compel compliance with the scheme of administration.

This temporary bill does not go far enough in providing any incentives to stamp out this behaviour from the CFMEU. It does nothing to hold those accused of criminal misconduct to account and will be cold comfort to the families whose loved ones have endured this abuse for years at the hands of a union that has become more of a militant activist than a workers' union. I thank the Senate.