Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Home Ownership) Share this | Hansard source

The real problem the Australian people have is that for three years they've had a government that is only focused on the narrow vested interests of the people that support the Labor Party: the unions and the big super funds—the people that man their polling booths, fund their campaigns and are involved in the inner workings of the labour movement. For three years, the government has funnelled cash and policy exclusively to these narrow vested interests. That is why they've had no time to solve the grave problems facing the Australian people, which is evident, and they are the cost of living, housing and inflation. The government has been so focused on narrow vested interests that it has had no time to solve the great economic problems of the day. That is a structural problem for this Labor Party because it is literally owned by the union movement. When the Nine newspapers exposed this massive corruption and wrongdoing last year, they were all so surprised and shocked. It was like a newsflash. But everyone knew the dirty little secret. Everyone knew about the corruption, the bikies and the malfeasance. It was not news to everyone else.

The people who are paying the CFMEU tax are the people of Australia who want to buy their first flat or who want to drive on a public road. They're paying a 20 or 30 per cent premium to people who don't want to actually work, who want to be paid for doing no work, because they want to pretend that they are part of a construction project. What they really are is part of a massive corruption scheme that has been supported by this Labor government for the last three years. One of the reasons that housing is out of reach for young Australians is that new apartment buildings are inflated in some parts of Australia by 20 or 25 per cent because of these CFMEU mafia style racketeering tactics, which are a huge stain on the labour movement.

I understand that every political party has problems, but this is a structural problem where it turns a blind eye to corruption—so much so that wrongdoing is pushed under the carpet. In the case of the CFMEU, it is still allowed to own a major superannuation fund. It is allowed to own 21 per cent of the Cbus fund. The Labor Party has a national president who is also the chair of the Cbus fund, which has failed to pay 10,000 death claims for people. When someone dies, they should be able to have their death claim paid if they have paid their insurance premiums. I think that is a reasonable expectation. But Cbus asks people to get two death certificates and to deal with six to nine or 12 months of bureaucracy at perhaps the worst time in their lives. Can anyone seriously imagine having a person as the head of any other political party who remains the chair of a major fund—it's a compulsory scheme nonetheless—and is allowed to continue?

When Jim Chalmers, the Treasurer, was asked about a scandal at Westpac, he said, 'We should throw the book at these people.' He's right; malfeasance is malfeasance. But, when it's to do with Wayne Swan and Cbus, there's silence, nothing. In fact he said, 'We don't comment on cases before the courts.' Well, he did when it was Westpac, and he does when it's any other organisation—a supermarket, perhaps. This double standard goes to the heart of this issue that the Labor Party is a party for vested interests. It is a government for vested interests that abolished the Building and Construction Commission because the CFMEU asked it to, because of services rendered at the last election campaign where they supported the Labor Party. They have done the same throughout this term of government in relation to these scandals in the super sector, in relation to the Cbus fund. A fair minded person would find it very hard to believe that a union in administration is allowed to own a compulsory pension fund with billions and billions of dollars. It is unbelievable, but it shows the government for vested interests in action.