Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Employment, Senator Abetz. Has the minister seen the report in today's Herald Sun that more than a dozen militant union officials have been banned from Victorian building sites? Is this an isolated incident, or is the minister aware of other breaches of right of entry laws around Australia? How do the current union workplace access laws stack up against what was promised by Labor in 2007?

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

I have seen the report and it is deeply concerning. Many people have described the photomontage in The Herald Sun as 'the mugs of thugs'. One individual named is CFMEU assistant secretary Shaun Reardon, who was refused a right of entry permit by the Fair Work Commission, which found that his behaviour was responsible for $459,000 worth of fines to the union and himself and concluded that he was not a fit and proper person to hold such a permit.

Whilst the Master Builders Association is exercising its legal right to deny Mr Reardon entry to building sites, there are others who are more than happy to invite Mr Reardon onto their premises, most notably the Victorian ALP's state conference, which had Mr Reardon as a star guest speaker. And the party's official Twitter account sent out a tweet praising him. And when Mr Reardon is not speaking at ALP conferences he is, according to a recent media report, cultivating his ties with outlaw bikie gangs.

These latest abuses of the right of entry regime have occurred despite Labor promising in 2007 that 'federal Labor will maintain the existing right of entry rules without exception'. That is completely unequivocal, yet we know that, clause after clause, they loosened them. So, just like Labor's 'no carbon tax', the coalition is actually committed to implementing Labor's policy of no carbon tax and taking the right of entry laws back to where Labor promised they should be. (Time expired)

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Does the minister believes that militancy and illegality is limited to Victoria, or are these breaches more widespread?

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

Regrettably, as the Cole royal commission found and as Labor's own hand-picked reviewer Justice Wilcox found, there is industrial unlawfulness in the building and construction industry Australia-wide, especially in Victoria and Western Australia. Indeed, Joe McDonald, the CFMEU National President, has personally cost the union more than $1 million in fines since 2005 for illegal activities in the west. In the most recent case he was fined $193,000 after he ignored a request to leave a site. When he was asked to leave, Mr McDonald's reply was: 'I haven't had one for seven years and that hasn't'—expletive deleted—'stopped me.' These incidents show that we do need the Australian Building and Construction Commission reinstituted and the right of entry laws changed as Labor promised they would remain. (Time expired)

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Will the minister inform the Senate what the government will do to crack down on dodgy union bosses, and those employers willing to play along with them, so workers can actually be free of harassment and intimidation on building sites?

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

The No. 1 thing is to reinstitute the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and I would invite those opposite to join us and immediately ensure that these types of activities, often with the union in cahoots with the employer, can no longer take place. Secondly, I would invite those opposite to help us implement Labor's Forward with Fairness policy and take back the right of entry laws to exactly where Labor promised they would remain. Thirdly, I would suggest that our policy that will require union officials to have photographic evidence of their identity should be supported by those opposite as well. Finally, I commend everybody in the community—workers both within the trade union movement and out of it, employers, contractors and subcontractors—to fully cooperate with our royal commission. (Time expired)