Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion related to further revelations about the CFMEU's links with organised crime and the consideration of legislation as circulated.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in my name, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to further revelations about the CFMEU's links with organised crime and the consideration of legislation.

Let us be very clear about the legislation that the coalition is seeking to bring on today and pass through the Australian Senate. It is, of course, to restore the tough cop on the beat, the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Removing Criminals from Worksites) Bill 2024.

Quite frankly, what we saw on 60 Minuteswere utterly vile revelations. Seriously, you had a health and safety rep—the irony of this person's title—standing there kicking a woman on a construction site. I cannot think of anything more shameful, more degrading and, quite frankly, more in need of this Senate coming together today and restoring the tough cop on the beat to ensure that the construction industry in Australia has half a chance of competing against organised crime.

Organised crime in Australia has infiltrated the CFMEU, is running the CFMEU and, in doing that, now controls the construction industry in Australia, and the Labor Party sit back and do nothing. We all know why. It is because in the time that Prime Minister Albanese has been leading the Labor Party the Labor Party has received from the CFMEU $11.5 million either in donations or in electoral support. What an absolute disgrace! Money talks in this country—dirty money flowing from the CFMEU, infiltrated by organised crime, into the Australian Labor Party. A very good question that needs to be asked is: given these ongoing revelations, is the Australian Labor Party going to return that money to the hardworking members of the CFMEU who, quite frankly, are not properly represented by the organised crime that is now allegedly infiltrating them?

This is what we saw on that Sunday night. We saw bikies perpetrating domestic violence on job sites for taxpayer funded projects. Someone kicking a woman played out on our TV screens across Australia. We stand here today willing to work with the government to bring on these two bills to restore the tough cop on the beat and ensure that there is legislation to remove these criminals from worksites. We all know that the government hasn't given us leave to do that, and we know why—because money talks. The money this government has taken from the CFMEU is the reason it refuses to do anything about it. But what is worse is that the first thing Mr Albanese did when he became Prime Minister of this country was to abolish the tough cop on the beat, the Australian Building and Construction Commission. And why did he do that? Because that was the No. 1 wish-list item for John Setka, the CFMEU and the ACTU. You have to be kidding me—the ABCC. I'm sure those on the other side will stand up and tell us how they were not successful. Well, of course they would! They have a financial interest in ensuring that there is no tough cop on the beat in the construction sector.

This is the reality that Australians face at the moment. The CFMEU is a modern-day mafia organisation. The culture of criminality and corruption is now so entrenched—and we saw it again on 60 Minutes last Sunday night—that it will never ever change, especially under a government that is still to this day completely, totally and utterly beholden to the CFMEU. There is only one party that will stand up, and that is the coalition, because we're not beholden to them.

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government will be opposing this motion.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Seriously. Shame!

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy President, I might point out that Senator Cash was heard in complete silence.

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes. Order, please, for the minister!

Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would be a good thing if similar respect could be shown to all speakers, whether it be me or anyone else. I know you don't want to hear the arguments against this, but I'm here to provide them to you. The government will be opposing this motion. First of all, it's an attempt to disrupt the program, which has already been set, which is to deal with matters including the workplace gender equality amendment, setting gender equality targets. We've just heard from Senator Cash about why supporting women in workplaces is important, but her political stunt now is about stopping debate on workplace gender equality amendment legislation, which is about setting gender equality targets. So it's a political stunt designed to disrupt a program which has already been listed.

But let's go to the substance of what Senator Cash is trying to do. The allegations we saw again on 60 Minutes and in other media reports a week ago were completely unacceptable, were appalling and were the direct result of the investigations commissioned by the administrator of the CFMEU. I know Senator Cash isn't prepared to listen to arguments and would rather yell than listen to those arguments, but the reality is that many of the allegations that we have seen on our TV screens over the last 12 months occurred while the coalition was in power and while it had an ABCC in force. These things were going on under the nose of the ABCC while it was prosecuting workers for putting stickers on their helmets and while it was prosecuting workers and unions for displaying flags on worksites. All of this criminality was not just occurring but flourishing while the ABCC was in place under a coalition government. Do you know what started to change that? It was the actions of a Labor government, which took the unprecedented step of passing legislation through this parliament that enabled the appointment of an administrator to the CFMEU who is beginning the long, difficult job of cleaning up an organisation that desperately needed cleaning up.

We also need to recognise, of course, that, as horrifying as some of the allegations we've seen about activities within the CFMEU are—and they are horrifying—there has also been terrible misbehaviour on the part of some employers and some labour hire firm operators in the sector. You never hear anything about that from the coalition; it's only about unions and workers. This government is about cleaning up the construction sector as a whole—including the CFMEU, gangland figures like Mick Gatto and the other corrupt individuals who are involved in this industry. Senator Paterson may have observed that only a week or so ago, as a result of investigations by the CFMEU administrator that are occurring, the Australian Federal Police raided a number of premises that seemed to be connected to these gangland figures. It might be politically convenient for the opposition to argue that things haven't changed enough within the CFMEU in the six months that the administrator has been in power, but the only reason we are seeing these revelations in the media, the only reason we are seeing police raids and the only reason we have seen a number of officials, organisers and delegates sacked from the CFMEU for misbehaviour is the appointment of the administrator. So the administrator should be able, unimpeded by political stunts like this one from Senator Cash, to continue the job of cleaning up the CFMEU and ensuring that workers in the construction sector have a strong and effective union to defend their rights and their safety at work.

Just very briefly, in the time I have left, I might go to what Senator Cash's bill seeks to do. We saw that press conference in Melbourne the other day with the opposition leader, Senator Cash and Senator Paterson—and every other senator who wanted to try to get their mug on TV. What did they say they wanted to do and what is contained within the bill? Well, for all their complaints about the activities of the CFMEU and John Setka and people like that, if this bill passes it will deregister the CFMEU. It will mean the CFMEU is not subject to any regulation whatsoever. You are effectively handing the keys for the CFMEU national office back to John Setka. You are handing the keys to the CFMEU back to the criminals and crooks who'd been thrown out of the CFMEU, because you are going to allow them to operate in an unregulated environment. Do you really think that's going to make things better? You will bring back the ABCC, under which this activity flourished with no consequences. You will put in place a police taskforce that already exists. This will let the worst elements back out on construction sites— (Time expired)

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, here we are: another day, another minister standing up running a protection racket for the CFMEU here under the Albanese government. They like to think that, because they've put an administrator in charge, we can now throw the Harry Potter invisibility cloak over the corruption issues within the construction industry in this country. But meanwhile they pay their preselectors, they take the donations, they line their pockets, they take their Senate seats—thank you very much, captains of the construction industry—and we see, in Victoria alone, $5 billion of cost blowouts for infrastructure projects.

It is not just the men and women working in this industry day in, day out who are subjected to the horrific behaviour on construction sites around this country that was exposed by the 60 Minutes investigation and by the excellent journalism of the Sydney Morning Herald and Age, including Nick McKenzie—brave stuff, because these are very, very dangerous people, and threatening people's lives is something they do quite easily and willingly. So well done to our journalists. But, aside from the men and women who are being subjected to this type of behaviour on construction sites around the country, it is our infrastructure pipeline of funding where the federal taxpayer is being ripped off. I wrote to Catherine King, the minister responsible, on 17 July 2024, when these revelations first were made and we found out that another $5 billion had to be shovelled to Victoria, not for one more kilometre of road or one more railway station but because of cost blowouts—and we didn't know why.

I wrote to the federal minister and said: 'Can you assure me, on behalf of the Commonwealth taxpayer, that this money is not going to the CFMEU and not going to organised crime? And how do you know?' I got a lovely letter back from the minister—and I foreshadow that if the chamber allows me I'll be tabling that letter—wherein she told me that she has directed her state and territory counterpart ministers to account for all their dollars. But it would seem, despite the administrator being appointed and despite Catherine King's explanations that she had it all under control, that it's not all under control. I actually had to write to her last week to ask her whether the Victorian government had complied with her direction about funding, what action the Victorian government and the federal government have taken with respect to the conduct that has been exposed again by 60 Minutes and Nick McKenzie and fellow journalists, and what measures Catherine King initiated to satisfy herself that there had been no improper or unlawful conduct on Commonwealth funded construction sites in Victoria. As yet, there has been silence—silence from the minister.

What we know on our side of politics is that this is not just restricted to Victoria. This is not only a Victoria's Big Build problem. We saw evidence to this parliament that construction costs in Queensland had skyrocketed in excess of 30 per cent simply because of the involvement of the CFMEU. That is a fact. That means the Olympics infrastructure will cost more. That means the Bruce Highway safety upgrades will cost more. Australians are getting less for their tax dollar because of this unholy alliance between the Australian Labor Party, the CFMEU and organised crime.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Stop being apologists for this behaviour, and stand up. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. You've been given the evidence by us, by auditors, by whistleblowers, by construction owners and by the ABCC, and you've done nothing. You do nothing. You stand up in this chamber time and time again, take their money and their votes for your preselections and do nothing against this criminality.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Emergency Management) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it's pretty clear what's on display this morning: two contrasting approaches to a serious public policy issue. One was on display in the contributions from Senator Cash and Senator McKenzie, which were full of mistruths, misstatements about the actual facts on the ground and the steps taken by this government, and misunderstandings about the policy levers that are in fact available to government—the ones that would be effective and the ones that would make the problem worse. That was evident in the alleged solution proposed by Senator Cash, which would indeed make this problem worse and would do nothing to resolve the serious public policy issues that are at play in this debate.

As Senator Watt has already pointed out, there is some irony that the stunt being pursued this morning by Senator Cash is displacing time allocated for a debate on women's gender equality at work—the debate that should be taking place at this time. And it's for that reason, amongst other things, that we oppose this suspension.

The allegations that were aired of corruption, thuggery, violence—they are sickening, and they are disturbing. There is zero tolerance for criminal behaviour or for gender based violence in any industry. I want to say this clearly: every worker deserves a safe workplace free from violence, free from intimidation and free from thuggery. But the real question to be asked for those opposite is what would be effective in confronting it? All of the things that were done when you were in government were plainly ineffective. The challenges which have built up in this industry built up under the supposed oversight of the body that you champion as the solution to these problems, and it is deeply revealing that you continue to champion those solutions even in the face of all of the evidence that they did not work.

We have taken a very different approach. From the very beginning, we took firm steps because, for us, this matters. It actually does matter that there is a good union in this sector—a clean union, a union capable of standing up for workers' interests and a union capable of enforcing and supporting the safety standards that are so critical for people working on building sites. It matters to ordinary Australians that a good, effective, clean and orderly union does operate in this sector. We're determined to stamp out those behaviours that we have seen that are entirely inconsistent with those values. We can't tolerate thuggery. We can't tolerate corruption. We can't tolerate the involvement of organised crime in this sector. Putting this organisation under the control of an administrator is an incredibly important step. It's a step that has allowed investigations to take place to uncover some of these behaviours.

It stands in contrast to the proposal from the opposition to put this organisation into deregistration. As the minister has already pointed out, what do people think that that will do? It will remove them from the oversight, the controls and the constraints that exist on any registered organisation. It'll remove them from oversight by the Fair Work Commission, remove them from all of the obligations that attend to a registered organisation and, as the minister has said, hand the keys back to John Setka. That is not an outcome that we are willing to tolerate. I am deeply surprised that it's an outcome that those on the other side are willing to contemplate and to advocate for. This is no solution whatsoever. It does nothing to deal with the challenges of the industry. It does nothing to restore the orderly operation of a clean union in this sector. It is a stunt, and it is a stunt that, on the occasion of today and today's program, displaces our opportunity to deal with a piece of legislation that actually promotes women's gender equality in the workplace.

Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have to say this and I'm going to call you out today: nine years. You people had nine years to clean up this industry! Let's be brutally honest here. You had Dyson Heydon, who couldn't keep his hands off women, on board and if you had not been so goddamn lazy and done that report properly—

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Jacqui, you were one of the senators who wouldn't support it.

Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You've had your time on the floor, Senator Cash. Through the chair, Senator Cash, you've had your negotiations, you've had your time on the floor.

Let's be honest. For nine years you had your ABCC going. What did that do? It did nothing! If you think that by deregistering these people that will fix it, you are absolutely nuts. They are one-per-cent biker gang; that is what they have become. They are in construction, and they are one-per-centers. That is all that industry has turned itself into. That is it! If you remove patches off one-per-centers, they drive themselves underground and more destruction is done. That is all you will do with the CFMEU. You will drive them further underground.

You had nine years—nine years. This didn't happen just in three years. You had nine years to clean them up and you lost. You lost that fight because you couldn't get the job done. So let's remind people about that. You had nine years. You should have had a look at that person you put up, the judge Dyson Heydon, because he had no credibility to start with, let alone when he was finished, with what we found out about him. You didn't follow through with those recommendations properly, and therefore it has not worked. It has been crap!

We've got nothing else left but this administrator and his recommendations, given you had nine years to clean it up and you failed miserably to do that. I would rather let the administrator go and get the job done. That's what I want to see. Honestly, if you think that driving the CFMEU and those thugs underground, where they already bloody belong anyway, is going to help this country, you are terribly, terribly wrong.

Now, I don't mind having a go at Labor in Melbourne or in Victoria, because let's face it: they've had their eyes closed. They knew this stuff was going on. This is what has been so disappointing: we—all of us—have known about this stuff for years, but we have not tackled it. We have not tackled it, and it will need to be hard. It cannot be just a one-pronged approach; it will need to be a five- or a 10-pronged approach to take down the CFMEU once and for all.

I know people are hurting out there. I know that it's not just women being harassed out there—that belongs to the CFMEU. Quite frankly, you are disgusting individuals. You are disgusting. If you think this is your legacy, Setka, what a disgusting little legacy you have left, you little standover man—you with your man Gatto! Oh, my God! Oh, my goodness! You've got to love that this morning. You've got to love that.

So, honestly, if you think this is going to fix it overnight, you are delusional. Nothing is going to stop these people apart from having a hell of a big police taskforce on them for the next five to 10 years and making sure we are on their tails. We have to make sure that the administrator starts to pass them to those task groups, that they are charged and jailed, and that he sets examples. People want people to look up to people in here, and the best way to do this is by action.

I want this administrator to get his job done. But to come in here when we've got an economic crisis, which blows me away in itself, when we haven't finished with the administrator, just because this all blew up on Sunday night—by the way, Australians, it is nothing that all of us in here have not known about when it comes to the CFMEU. We've all known about it. Probably some of us haven't known the depth of it, but we've all known about it. I've been up here 10 years. That side couldn't fix it in nine. They couldn't fix it, so for God's sake let the administrator do his job. But, by God, I'm on his tail! I am speaking to him regularly because I am on his tail. He'd want to stay tough and he'd want to start putting them in jail, because that's what I want to see done and that's what the Australian people want to see done, because actions speak louder than words. That is when you will clean up backyards: when you start putting them behind bars so we're not putting up with this goddamn criminal behaviour—the ugliness of it! We want no more of it. It has got to stop. I won't be supporting this.

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Paterson, and then after that I note there will be time in the debate for you, Senator Sheldon, because I know you want the call. There should be some—

There's only five minutes to go, so we'll have to go back to the Liberal side, Senator Sheldon.

We've gone Liberal, Labor—

Senator Wong, we've gone Liberal, Labor. The minister at the time indicated that the call would go to the crossbench, so I've gone back to the Liberals and will then go back to Labor. I've been fair, Senator Wong.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

So it should come back to the government.

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, because one crossbencher was inserted with the consent of the—

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That means the opposition gets three and the government gets two. That cannot be right.

Andrew McLachlan (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was going around the chamber, Senator Wong.

James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are many decent, hardworking Australians who are members of unions. There are many decent, hardworking Australians who are union officials. The business model of most unions in this country is to take fees from their members to advocate on behalf of their members and their interests—to advocate for better pay, better conditions and safety in the workplace. They don't deserve to be tarnished by the conduct of the CFMEU.

The CFMEU is not a union anymore. The CFMEU hasn't been a union for a long time. The CFMEU is now a criminal enterprise. It has been taken over by organised crime figures and by outlaw motorcycle gangs. Its business model is not to take money from its members to advocate for their interests like reputable unions do; its business model is to engage in criminal standover tactics to intimidate business owners and construction site operators into paying go-away money to criminals to keep industrial peace. The result of that is that taxpayers' money is being siphoned off directly from here in Canberra, on behalf of all Australian taxpayers, and in my home state of Victoria, on behalf of Victorian taxpayers, to criminal elements who are engaging in criminal behaviour on worksites, which puts everyone in danger and threatens everyone's safety on sites, whether they are union members or not.

I note that, in the last 24 hours, Mr Mick Gatto has had a few things to say about me and the Leader of the Opposition. All I would say in response to that is: I am not intimidated by Mr Gatto, I will not be retracting any statements I have made about him and I am more determined than ever before to help clean up the building industry and crack down on this criminal enterprise that is the modern CFMEU.

The government should know better because the government was warned. The government was warned that, if they voted to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, they would let the CFMEU off the leash and they would allow the CFMEU to return to and expand their criminal ways. And that is exactly what has happened. Yet senators in this chamber voted with the government to support them in abolishing the ABCC and members in the other place, who should have known better, voted with the government to abolish the ABCC. That includes people like the teal so-called Independent MPs, like the member for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, and the member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel. They voted with the Labor Party to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission and to let the CFMEU off the leash.

The consequences of those votes and the consequences of those decisions were put to air for all Australians to see on 60 Minutes just a week ago. Nick McKenzie and his team did incredible work and have shown incredible courage in exposing the criminal conduct of this union and its officials. Although the government might like to give credit to the administrator for the work they've done, the only reason we have an administrator of the CFMEU is thanks to journalists like Nick McKenzie, who took risks to write this story and bring it to the public's attention. Everybody in the government knew about the behaviour of the CFMEU, but they weren't first to do anything about it until that program was put to air last year. They were embarrassed into taking the bare minimum action required to fix the CFMEU.

There's no doubt the administrator and his team are doing the best that they can in the circumstances they've found themselves in, but the truth is they've been given an impossible task. They've been asked to reform the CFMEU. The CFMEU is unreformable. Its business model is what it is and it will not be changed by a well-meaning KC or anybody else investigating corruption in the union. The only way to reform the CFMEU is to abolish the CFMEU and start again or to allow other, more reputable unions to step in to represent those workers—unions like the Australian Workers Union, who can step in and represent those workers and their interests capably without involving bikies and organised crime figures like Mick Gatto in their business model.

But the government refuses to do that, and we know why. They are hopelessly conflicted when it comes to the CFMEU. They took $11½ million of donations and other campaigning support from the CFMEU on Mr Albanese's watch alone as Leader of the Labor Party to make him Prime Minister and to deliver on their agenda, and they did deliver on their agenda. The key ask of the CFMEU to the Labor Party in exchange for those donations at the last election was to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, and it was one of the first items of business for this government after they were elected. You are responsible for what is happening on worksites right now. You're responsible for the criminality, you're responsible for the corruption, you're responsible for taxpayers being ripped off and you're responsible for people being assaulted on sites by organised crime and bikies.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the debate has expired.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion to suspend as moved by Senator Cash be agreed to.