Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the coalition's bill to remove criminals from worksites, the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Removing Criminals from Worksites) Bill 2024 (No. 2). This is a bill that we brought to the parliament in 2017, when we were in government. And guess what? Despite all of the rhetoric from Mr Albanese now and despite every answer in question time that Senator Wong gives saying, 'The Labor government is taking the strongest action ever against the CFMEU,' do you know what happened in 2017, colleagues? When we were in government, the then Labor opposition voted against this bill. Had they voted for this bill—guess what?—some seven years later we would've had the ability to take criminals off worksites.

But it doesn't stop there. We were so committed as a government to cleaning up the construction industry in Australia that, despite the then Labor opposition voting against a bill, in 2017, that removed criminals from worksites in Australia, we brought it back to the parliament in 2019. And, again, what did the then opposition do? Well, it's not law today, so they could only have done one thing—that is, voted against the bill.

The bill that we bring before the Senate today is a very simple one. Who in Australia does not believe that we should have the powers to remove criminals from worksites? On what basis would an opposition, the Labor opposition, and now a Labor government that claims it is taking the strongest action possible against the CFMEU—no-one believes that; we'll go through that shortly—not support a bill that again is all about removing criminals from worksites?

I'd say any Australian listening in to this today would say: 'Hold on. I'm a little confused. Are you saying that criminals are allowed on worksites?' On what planet do we have a country where criminals are allowed to go on worksites? Not only can they go onto worksites; by law they are given a right-of-entry permit, which says, 'You are entitled to go onto a worksite.' Quite frankly, the Australia we live in was created by the Labor opposition who, in 2017 and again in 2019, not only didn't support this bill but pulled their second reading speeches. I tell you, Senator McKenzie and Senator Birmingham, they are fascinating to read. The justification for believing that criminals should be allowed on worksites—the protection racket for those members of the CFMEU who have been wreaking havoc on worksites for years and years—is laughable. They should be hanging their heads in shame.

Let's jump forward to 2024. When the Fairfax newspapers printed what is now known to have been going on for a very long time—that there is bullying, thuggery and intimidation on Australian construction sites; that basically they've been taken over by the underworld of the CFMEU—the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Albanese, in July this year, stood up and said to the Australian people, 'I am shocked and surprised.' I have to say—