Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister for Employment, Senator Abetz. I ask the minister: what is the government doing to uphold the rule of law in the construction industry and to tackle infiltration by criminal elements in that industry?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is determined to reintroduce the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which has been delayed by yet another Senate tactic by the Labor-Greens alliance.

Restoration of the ABCC is absolutely critical to address the problems of corruption and standover tactics which have now been revealed, chapter and verse, in the gush of revelations by the ABC and Fairfax Media and whistleblowers.

I am reminded of a photograph, which I table, of a bikie gang sergeant-at-arms marching in the infamous anti-Grocon rally in Melbourne wearing his CFMEU jacket over his Comanchero t-shirt. The person he was walking next to in this picture was the Victorian assistant secretary of the CFMEU. That was the dispute where police officers were bashed, and workers at the site—CFMEU members—took out an advertisement against their own union bosses, seeking protection. And Mr Shorten? Deathly silent. Instead of intervening to condemn, he was silent. When the Victorian CFMEU and the Comancheros were making house visits to builders, Mr Shorten was again completely silent. Even worse, the next thing Mr Shorten did as minister for workplace relations was to legislate to expand the right of entry of these types of people onto construction sites.

The best way to deal with thuggery, intimidation and violence on building sites is by re-establishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission, a matter for which we have a very clear mandate from the Australian people.

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Is the minister aware of any alternative policies to deal with the presence of outlaw bikie gangs on building sites in Australia?

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Funny that Senator Back should ask! I noted with interest a report in The Daily Telegraph yesterday which stated:

… Labor leader Bill Shorten has demanded that union leaders outlaw the entry of anyone wearing bikie colours or badges into building and construction site across the country.

In other words, he was promoting a mufti day for the bikies! He does not want to change the people going into the sites, just what they wear. He does not want to change their behaviour; he just wants to change what they wear so they cannot be identified with outlawed bikie gangs. This is Bill Shorten's, the great Labor leader's, answer to corruption and thuggery and intimidation in workplaces and on construction sites: 'Change your clothes. Wear a different jacket and everything will be all right.' What we need is a change of culture. We need a change of personality. We need a change of— (Time expired)

Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Will the minister inform the Senate how the establishment of a royal commission will shine a light on corrupt behaviour in those affected unions?

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Order, on both sides!

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is on the side of honest trade-union members who have been let down by dodgy union bosses. We got an interjection from the other side saying that nobody seems to know what a royal commission would do. Funny, that. Your former Labor Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, knew exactly what it would do. Former AMWU official Ian Cambridge, who is now a Fair Work Commissioner, knows exactly what a royal commission would do. Kathy Jackson, the former secretary of the Health Services Union, knows exactly what a royal commission would do—and so the list goes on. Steven Purvinas of the engineers union knows exactly what a royal commission would do. The CEPU person that blew the whistle knows what a royal commission would do. But those over there who have been engaged in the union movement will not see and attend to that which needs to be cut out of the union movement to protect those honest union members who want to see the reputation of the trade union movement flourish and not diminished by the sorts of rackets the Labor Party— (Time expired)