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

My question is to the Minister for Employment, Senator Cash. Will the minister advise the Senate of any examples which highlight the importance of restoring the rule of law to the construction sector?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I can. The evidence for the need for the restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission is overwhelming. What we have, though, is a situation where the opposition and the Greens continue, despite this evidence, to support a culture of lawlessness in the construction industry. Can I give the Senate some examples of the type of behaviour which we on this side are trying to outlaw.

A female employee of an equipment hire firm in Queensland in 2012, when declining to sign a union EBA, was told by a BLF organiser:

You think it's—

expletive—

funny. If you don't—

expletive—

sign this I guarantee you won't be working on the Indooroopilly shopping centre site.

Then there is the case of Luke Collier, the CFMEU official who, at a Sydney building site in 2014, greeted a female Fair Work building and construction inspector using expletives and sexually derogatory terms. Collier also blasted a megaphone hailer within centimetres of the heads of two Fair Work inspectors and stated:

What are you looking at, you—

expletive—

dog? Do you think your phone number is all I've got.

Finally, and probably, quite frankly, one of the most disgusting examples, the commission also heard that, during the Grocon blockade by the CFMEU, a minibus driver who was suffering from cancer and who was attempting to leave the area had his van surrounded by CFMEU members, who punched the windscreen and yelled abuse. The CFMEU's Assistant Secretary, John Setka, yelled out, 'I hope you die of your cancer.' This is the response of the shadow minister, Brendan O'Connor: 'It's just a rough and tumble industry.' (Time expired)

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

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister advise any further examples of troubling conduct in the building and construction sector?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I can.

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On my left!

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The royal commission also heard the case study of an ACT building site visited by the CFMEU under the guise of a safety inspection, but which resulted in a building contractor calling triple 0 because the union officials wanted him to 'step up and have a fight'. The CFMEU officials also blocked a truck contracted to do a concrete pour, resulting in the pour being cancelled, costing the contractor $10,000.

The CFMEU also has form in disrupting works, as evidenced from a recorded telephone conversation of CFMEU official Anthony Vitler, who, while visiting a Sydney worksite, rang a fellow official to state:

… they're attempting to set up a pump, so we—we're … gonna have a bit of a—

expletive—

crack.

These are the reasons why the Heydon royal commission stated that the sustained and entrenched disregard for both industrial and criminal laws shown by the country's largest construction union further support the need for the ABCC. (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 advise the Senate why compulsory powers are necessary for an effective industrial regulator?

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Quite simply, because the kind of behaviour I have just highlighted shows that there is a culture of what is now silence in the industry for fear of retribution. Labor's own hand-picked reviewer of the ABCC, Murray Wilcox QC, himself came to the conclusion that compulsory information-gathering powers were essential. Mr Wilcox also said that he himself could not recommend getting rid of the compulsory powers because to get rid of them 'would not be a responsible course'. He went on to say:

The reality is that, without such a power, some types of contravention would be almost impossible to prove.

The culture of fear and intimidation in the building and construction sector is there for all to see and is clear evidence as to why these powers are required.