Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

It's with great pleasure that I rise as the shadow infrastructure minister to speak in support of the Building and Construction Industry (Restoring Integrity and Reducing Building Costs) Bill 2024, which was introduced by Senator Cash. This is an important piece of legislation that will restore the rule of law to the construction industry. It will help remove lawlessness, corruption and thuggery from our building sites. Importantly, this bill will help reduce the cost of building homes, roads, rail lines and other public infrastructure assets right across Australia.

The Albanese government's decision to abolish the ABCC has had a devastating impact on the Australian economy and on law-abiding businesses in the construction sector. We know that CFMEU controlled projects are 30 per cent more expensive to build. They also take 50 per cent longer to build. Not only are taxpayers being charged more; they have to wait longer to actually avail themselves of critical infrastructure projects to increase productivity and to make sure we move people and products around this country more efficiently and safely. Even on this very day, the brazen thuggery that has become synonymous with the CFMEU is on display, with a senior union official overseeing the intimidation of an Indigenous labour-hire company able to keep his job under the nose of the administrator that the minister, Murray Watt, assured us would have this union and its reckless behaviour under control. Minister, it's great to have you in the chamber today to hear the fact that the administrator isn't making a difference to the behaviour on site of the CFMEU.

We read in the Australian today that CFMEU administrator Mark Irving has decided to keep employing senior union organiser Joel Shackleton despite him being charged by police with threatening to kill an owner of an Indigenous labour-hire company and losing his right to enter building sites. I'll be interested to hear what the Minister for Indigenous Affairs has to say about this. The Minister for Small Business should be backing Indigenous Australians getting involved in the construction sector and not having to face intimidation and bullying by this union, which we all know has a culture problem. It always has, whether it was called the BLF or, now, the CFMEU, and an administrator is not going to change that culture, as we see. It's an absolute disgrace.

I wanted to read into Hansard today the report so the Australian people know exactly the character of this cowardly Labor government to take on this union and their inability to do that. According to today's Australian, the union official in question, John Shackleton:

… who was charged after being captured on video telling the owner "I'll f..king take your soul and I'll rip your f..king head off", would be employed in an office job with the CFMEU's Victorian branch.

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Police said investigators would allege he made threats to inflict serious injury on two owners of an Indigenous labour hire company during a confrontation on a Victorian Big Build site …

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The video shows Mr Shackleton telling one owner that he would "f..king end you, c..t, and you know it, don't f..k with me. I'll f..king take your soul and I'll rip your f..king head off. Don't f..k with me, c..t.. F..k you. You're a f..king dog."

If nothing changes, nothing actually changes. There's been a big song and dance by Anthony Albanese and Minister Watt on getting tough on the CFMEU. Well, what is going on on the building sites in my home state of Victoria? There's been a lot of big talk but, once again, no action from a government that thinks talking about it is the solution. It's like we're still in our Sydney university or Queensland university debating classes. We're still in student politics. We had that big rant and that big rally, but you lack the capacity and the political will to take the tough action. Why? Because you're inherently conflicted when it comes to this union. This union funds your election campaigns; this union controls the pre-selections of so many of the MPs and senators that sit in this place. It is no wonder that they lack the grit and the courage to take it on.

That's why I'm so proud to be part of an opposition that's not afraid to take this union to task. It's not afraid to move legislation in this place that will make a difference to the behaviour of the CFMEU. No-one should forget that, in getting rid of the ABCC, the government was aided and abetted by teal MPs in the lower house, and the move was actually made possible in the Senate only by the votes of a couple of independent senators and the Greens. Without those supporting votes of the teal MPs, it wouldn't have happened—very, very big on integrity, aren't they, unless it's on a building site, or unless it's about threatening Indigenous construction businesses. Without the teals, the independents and the Greens, Labor would never have actually been able to abolish the ABCC, which has resulted in the floodgates opening.

In the debate today, the coalition asks those that voted with the Labor Party two years ago to abolish the ABCC to reflect on the gravity of the situation we find ourselves in today. You were sold a pup by Minister Burke. He's a sweet-talker, we all know that—charming, some would say.