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

I know, Senator Cadell. I'm with you there. But I'll give credit where credit is due. Flattery got Mr Burke everywhere. And in the end they folded and backed this government's desire and, indeed, the CFMEU's No. 1 ask going into the election: to get rid of the ABCC. They couldn't get it done quick enough. They can't get anything done about cost of living but: 'Mate, we can get rid of the ABCC for you. No worries there.'

To the independents and to the Greens in this place: this is the opportunity to rectify that mistake, because, as the facts make clear, abolishing the ABCC has had a material impact on worksites around the country, on the costs of public infrastructure and on bullying and intimidation, which is there for all to see.

On 9 September 2024, Labor's Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government reminded us all what it means to have the CFMEU in control of infrastructure, with reports that the midyear budget update will include millions of dollars to plug blowouts in road and rail projects. In fact, there was an additional $10.1 billion in that update that was to be given to states by Commonwealth taxpayers for project blowouts. Are state governments so bad at managing infrastructure projects? Or is that actually the cost of doing business on public infrastructure projects that are controlled by the CFMEU? Of that $10.1 billion blowout, $5 billion was for my Victorian state government, with not one extra kilometre of road built for all that taxpayer funded money.

These cost blowouts followed payments of $6.77 billion for construction blowouts last November, after Catherine King's short, sharp 200-day review of the infrastructure pipeline saw that Commonwealth taxpayers had to find another $6.77 billion for cost blowouts. Is it because Labor governments can't manage projects, or is it because they are complicit in CFMEU controlled projects blowing out costs? Every Australian family and small business, every taxpayer, is paying more taxes to cover the increased costs of delivering these cost blowouts. It is appalling, yet there is silence from the Labor Party.

There is silence in the face of Indigenous construction workers being bullied, intimidated and harassed. There is silence from the feminists in the Left when the misogyny that is endemic in the CFMEU is laid clear. There is silence from the feminists in the Greens. Why? Because somehow they owe the CFMEU, and this is how this union works. It is a quid pro quo relationship: 'I'll donate to you and I'll make sure you get preselected, as long as you stay silent when we do our business on building sites, when we drive up the costs, when we make it impossible for building businesses, mum-and-dad businesses, whether they're Indigenous or not, to actually turn a profit and keep people employed.'

It's an absolute indictment, and I'm hopeful that everyone in this Senate will actually support our measures to bring some integrity back into the construction sector. There were independent senators who bought Tony Burke's lines who now know they were sold a pup. Now, this bill is an opportunity for them to rectify that mistake and for the Greens and the Labor Party to realise that an administrator is not enough, that there does need to be a regulator in charge of this industry, which, historically, has lent itself to lawlessness, thuggery and corruption. It doesn't matter who's in charge. It's time to actually stand up and do the right thing—the right thing for the workers involved, the right thing for the businesses involved, the right thing for taxpayers.

New investments in the Bruce Highway, for instance, have seen heavy restrictions. Road works are needing to be fixed, and the damaged roads are unlikely to be completed next month as they can't actually get the project built because of go-slows and cost. It's just not good enough that, when the Prime Minister undertook a full review of infrastructure needs only a year ago, the government failed to identify new investments to improve the safety of the Bruce Highway. And now they are wanting to deflect attention. Labor had to cancel $2 billion from Greater Western Sydney infrastructure following the infrastructure review last year, stripping promised and contracted funding from the Cardinia and Yarra Ranges shires to seal residential roads in the Dandenongs. There are all projects that had to be cancelled or delayed as a result of billions and billions of dollars of cost blowouts thanks to the CFMEU.

Future funding for regional roads has been put at risk by construction cost blowouts, with the Albanese government promising to reduce Commonwealth funding for regional roads from 80 per cent down to 50 per cent. As was pointed out in Jane Halton's 2023 review of the National Partnership Agreement on Land Transport Infrastructure, reducing the Commonwealth funding split for regional roads will result in fewer regional projects being prioritised by states and territories. So, if you ever had any doubt that this Labor government doesn't care what happens outside capital city boundaries, it is evidenced in its own infrastructure national partnership agreement review, which blatantly states, if you change this funding arrangement to fifty-fifty, the states and territories will not invest in regional roads. So road toll will continue to rise and the cost of goods will continue to rise, as it costs more and more in time and maintenance for our truckies to actually deliver the same amount of goods. That is the reality of infrastructure funding under Anthony Albanese.

This bill represents a sensible return to regulating a lawless industry that Labor seems intent on continuing to fulfil, enable and facilitate. Despite the minister's tough words, once again we see Labor failing to deliver on the cost of living, for the regions or for Jewish Australians, with their response to the Gaza war, but delivering for one stakeholder, the only stakeholder that really matters, and that's the CFMEU.