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

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union have again shown their hypocrisy and the depths to which they are willing to sink for their own financial gain. This week we have seen reports that the CFMEU appear to have been siphoning money from a drug, alcohol and gambling rehabilitation facility—Foundation House—for their own use. Foundation House was supposed to be a recipient of the compulsory levy imposed on builders under the standard CFMEU enterprise agreement, but the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption has recently heard that only half of the money destined for Foundation House ever made it there. The other half was sent to the general revenue account of the New South Wales branch of the CFMEU. Indeed, TheAustralianFinancial Review reported back in 2012 that money supposedly delivered to the facility was, in fact, sent to the CFMEU for unspecified safety activities.

The Foundation House website describes the services they provide, which include residential rehabilitation programs, family support, after care and relapse prevention groups. These are the programs that could have been funded by the money that the CFMEU appears to have instead taken for unspecified purposes. Perhaps this is the one reason why the Construction and General Division of the CFMEU was recently assessed as having net assets worth $71.2 million. These revelations are a reminder of the priorities of this duplicitous union. It is the union that always puts itself and its officials first, before the community, before the taxpayer and even before the welfare of its members.

This is the union that has unlawfully interrupted the construction of important public infrastructure, including new hospitals, public markets, housing for the long-term homeless, schools, bridge upgrades and new roads. The taxpayer, who funds a large number of these projects, would be disgusted to hear of the millions of dollars that have been wasted by the CFMEU as it unlawfully holds publicly funded projects to ransom. Once in court, these activities come at a further cost to taxpayers in prosecution time, court time and, ultimately, the loss in productivity and lost jobs.

This week's reports about the activities of the CFMEU start to paint a picture of what the union really care about when it comes to drugs and alcohol—that is, themselves. And we have seen this before. Rather than prioritising the safety of their members, this is the union that fought tooth and nail to prevent drug and alcohol tests on construction sites—tooth and nail! They fought an employer who tried to introduce announced testing on a busy highway construction site all the way from the Victorian Building Industry Disputes Panel through to the Fair Work Commission and all the way to the Full Federal Court. The union in that case objected to the fact that there was an actual test for the presence of drugs or alcohol on a site next to an active highway. In fact, the union were so heavily opposed to these measures that one of the first acts of the new Labor Andrews government, in my home state of Victoria, was to abolish a requirement for drug and alcohol testing to be introduced on taxpayer-funded construction sites. Can anyone imagine that Daniel Andrews would have done this without the blessing of the CFMEU? But the plot thickened when the CFMEU realised, earlier this year, that they might be able to defeat the government in its attempt to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission by agreeing to reinstate drug and alcohol testing on construction sites. In March this year, Lateline reported that Senator Lambie reached a deal with the CFMEU to restore random drug testing on construction sites. Even the most cynical of us were pleased that the CFMEU had changed its mind on this crucially important issue. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that the proposal was completely disingenuous—what a surprise! Senator Lambie is rightly concerned about the abolition of drug and alcohol testing by the Andrews Labor government in Victoria. We on this side of the Senate agree with the need to reinstate drug and alcohol testing against objective medical thresholds.

The very day after the Lateline report, the disingenuous CFMEU feigned support for the proposal. The union issued a media release announcing a proposal for an impairment policy that would include a proposal for mandatory blanket drug and alcohol testing of workers and employers. Putting aside the fact that this is not genuine random testing as existed before Premier Andrews abolished it, the CFMEU National Secretary, Dave Noonan, acknowledged he was reversing the union's position on ABC radio. He said:

We have opposed mandatory testing in the past but … when circumstances change it is reasonable for people to change their mind.

I completely agree with Mr Noonan on that fact—you have to deal with the context in front of you. The Andrews Labor government was also quick to change its tune and express support for the proposal. On the day the CFMEU announced its about-turn, Premier Daniel Andrews expressed his support, saying it was a 'very good outcome' if employers and employees came to an agreement on drug checks. If the Andrews government were genuine, it would immediately reinstate drug and alcohol testing, and if the CFMEU was genuine about the risks, the very grave risks, of drug and alcohol abuse on construction sites it would have acted swiftly after reports emerged that workers were regularly taking drugs at the site of the Wonthaggi desalination plant down in South Gippsland. There, workers anonymously told reporters how bikies, working at the site, encouraged coworkers to attend mid-week parties where the drug ice freely flowed. It was reported that these parties were used to create a market for that drug in particular and, more widely, other illicit substances. Further, workers informed reporters that shop stewards had witnessed drug deals on the site while workers who tested positive for drugs and alcohol, and who agreed to counselling, had to be given a two-hour paid break in order to sober up. But the most significant indicators that the CFMEU is completely incredible, when it comes to drug and alcohol testing, were the reports that medical staff on site were discouraged from using drug-testing kits, despite concerns that some workers were operating heavy machinery while affected by illicit drugs, including ice. I know that community in Wonthaggi and, since that particular incident, the incidence of ice within the broader community is of grave concern.

This government genuinely supports drug and alcohol testing on construction sites. We supported the Victorian construction code that required it. The CFMEU has long opposed these tests. It has only adjusted its position, to the minimum possible extent, to pursue its other aim of preventing the parliament from re-establishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission. This is because the ABCC would finally hold the CFMEU to account when it repeatedly breaks the law and counts the penalties as simply the cost of doing business. Yet again, the CFMEU has shown that its primary concern is its own leadership, not safety, not its members, and certainly not the industry more broadly. As the royal commission has heard, it is willing to secretly siphon money away from a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre for its personal use and it is willing to bargain with the safety of construction workers to secure a defeat of the government's ABCC legislation.