Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

(—) (): Thank you, Senator Polley. I fear you might be right because, last night, the Greens had a choice to clean up corruption and violence, but they chose to protect John Setka and his mates. Last night, the Greens political party decided to side with John Setka, bikies, corruption, thuggery, bullying and lawlessness rather than vote with Labor to get organised crime out of the union. Last week, the administrator was ready and waiting to get started, and, last week, union groups and employer groups were calling on the coalition and the Greens to support the legislation so we could begin the work of cleaning up the CFMEU. Every day, the Greens dragged our action out so they could get a run on the news. What that meant was another day of uncertainty for workers and employers in the construction industry, another day of protecting John Setka and his allies, another day of the CFMEU hiding and moving assets, another day of bullying, thuggery, corruption and violence in the construction union. Working in construction is hard and dangerous, and the workers in that industry deserve a strong, effective and clean union. (Time expired)