James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Hansard source

There are many decent, hardworking Australians who are members of unions. There are many decent, hardworking Australians who are union officials. The business model of most unions in this country is to take fees from their members to advocate on behalf of their members and their interests—to advocate for better pay, better conditions and safety in the workplace. They don't deserve to be tarnished by the conduct of the CFMEU.

The CFMEU is not a union anymore. The CFMEU hasn't been a union for a long time. The CFMEU is now a criminal enterprise. It has been taken over by organised crime figures and by outlaw motorcycle gangs. Its business model is not to take money from its members to advocate for their interests like reputable unions do; its business model is to engage in criminal standover tactics to intimidate business owners and construction site operators into paying go-away money to criminals to keep industrial peace. The result of that is that taxpayers' money is being siphoned off directly from here in Canberra, on behalf of all Australian taxpayers, and in my home state of Victoria, on behalf of Victorian taxpayers, to criminal elements who are engaging in criminal behaviour on worksites, which puts everyone in danger and threatens everyone's safety on sites, whether they are union members or not.

I note that, in the last 24 hours, Mr Mick Gatto has had a few things to say about me and the Leader of the Opposition. All I would say in response to that is: I am not intimidated by Mr Gatto, I will not be retracting any statements I have made about him and I am more determined than ever before to help clean up the building industry and crack down on this criminal enterprise that is the modern CFMEU.

The government should know better because the government was warned. The government was warned that, if they voted to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, they would let the CFMEU off the leash and they would allow the CFMEU to return to and expand their criminal ways. And that is exactly what has happened. Yet senators in this chamber voted with the government to support them in abolishing the ABCC and members in the other place, who should have known better, voted with the government to abolish the ABCC. That includes people like the teal so-called Independent MPs, like the member for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, and the member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel. They voted with the Labor Party to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission and to let the CFMEU off the leash.

The consequences of those votes and the consequences of those decisions were put to air for all Australians to see on 60 Minutes just a week ago. Nick McKenzie and his team did incredible work and have shown incredible courage in exposing the criminal conduct of this union and its officials. Although the government might like to give credit to the administrator for the work they've done, the only reason we have an administrator of the CFMEU is thanks to journalists like Nick McKenzie, who took risks to write this story and bring it to the public's attention. Everybody in the government knew about the behaviour of the CFMEU, but they weren't first to do anything about it until that program was put to air last year. They were embarrassed into taking the bare minimum action required to fix the CFMEU.

There's no doubt the administrator and his team are doing the best that they can in the circumstances they've found themselves in, but the truth is they've been given an impossible task. They've been asked to reform the CFMEU. The CFMEU is unreformable. Its business model is what it is and it will not be changed by a well-meaning KC or anybody else investigating corruption in the union. The only way to reform the CFMEU is to abolish the CFMEU and start again or to allow other, more reputable unions to step in to represent those workers—unions like the Australian Workers Union, who can step in and represent those workers and their interests capably without involving bikies and organised crime figures like Mick Gatto in their business model.

But the government refuses to do that, and we know why. They are hopelessly conflicted when it comes to the CFMEU. They took $11½ million of donations and other campaigning support from the CFMEU on Mr Albanese's watch alone as Leader of the Labor Party to make him Prime Minister and to deliver on their agenda, and they did deliver on their agenda. The key ask of the CFMEU to the Labor Party in exchange for those donations at the last election was to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and it was one of the first items of business for this government after they were elected. You are responsible for what is happening on worksites right now. You're responsible for the criminality, you're responsible for the corruption, you're responsible for taxpayers being ripped off and you're responsible for people being assaulted on sites by organised crime and bikies.