Grant Chapman (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is directed to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Will the minister update the Senate on the important work that the Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner is undertaking to ensure Australia’s construction industry is free from intimidation and illegal tactics? Has the minister considered any threats to the commission’s ongoing role in performing this important work?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Fisheries, Forestry and Conservation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Chapman for his interest in this issue. Australia’s building and construction industry is a significant and important sector of the economy, turning over close to $90 billion annually and employing some 577,000 of our fellow Australians. As Commissioner Cole found in 2003, the industry was riddled with unlawful conduct. In response, the government established the Australian Building and Construction Commission to stamp out this behaviour. Through its investigations and prosecutions, the commission has addressed unlawful conduct and enforced the rule of law on building sites. It is no coincidence that the level of industrial dispute in this country is now at a 90-year low of 1.5 working days lost per 1,000 employees. Hold on to that number 1.5, because I want to remind honourable senators that, when Labor was last in power, the figure was a staggering 263.9 working days lost per 1,000 employees.

I was asked about threats to this body. The main threat is Labor and Ms Gillard. She believes that the powers of the ABCC are ‘akin to interrogating terrorists’. Labor plans to execute this body. But, by popular demand, let us have another ‘Who said it?’ Who said, ‘You wouldn’t just abolish the ABCC and have nothing in its place? I would be concerned if militant unionists were left in that position’? I can debunk the suggestion from the other side that it may have been Mr Keating, but it was a Labor employment minister from—and you have already guessed it—the state of Western Australia. It was Ms Roberts. As we read in the press today, these militant unionists from the CFMEU have been caught at it again on candid camera: attempting to intimidate and stand over—and get this—an occupational health and safety manager on a Perth building site.

A few weeks ago Mr Rudd temporarily suspended Dean Mighell and the ETU from the ALP for exactly this sort of behaviour and pledged to return their funds. I say to Mr Rudd that, if he were serious about addressing militant unionism, rather than undertaking mere window-dressing, he would do three things: firstly, he would expel Joe McDonald and Kevin Reynolds from the ALP; secondly, he would return the massive $6.3 million the CFMEU has given to the ALP over the past decade; and, thirdly, he would retain the ABCC unchanged in its present form. Mr Rudd has to explain to the Australian people why it is an expelling offence for Dean Mighell and the ETU but it is only a slap on the wrist for the CFMEU. Of course, the difference is that, when the thugs, such as Brian Burke, come with money, like $6.3 million, it all seems to be okay if it helps Mr Rudd in his bid to be elected as prime minister of this country. We on this side are committed to defending the decent workers of this country and getting rid of criminality on work sites. We make no bones about that. Mr Rudd simply cannot afford to do it because he relies on the $6.3 million that he gets from these thuggish unions. (Time expired)