House debates

Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Questions without Notice

Trade Union Joint Police Task Force

3:08 pm

Photo of Michael KeenanMichael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I will rephrase, Mr Speaker: we last saw John Setka, the head of the CFMEU in Victoria, at the Leader of the Opposition's election night party in 2016. What an endorsement of this sort of behaviour, where someone who punches on with police is invited to come and celebrate after the 2016 election. We in the Liberal Party will not stand for lawbreaking, and we have established joint task forces with the Australian Federal Police and their state police counterparts to investigate and prosecute union lawbreaking. We have invested $21 million so they can do their job. I have been advised just recently by the Queensland Labor government that they are going to withdraw Queensland police from the task force. They apparently think there is no union lawbreaking in Queensland, which is interesting because the CFMEU has a branch in Queensland and the former president of the CFMEU has been charged for allegedly colluding to organise construction on his home, making a personal gain in excess of $400,000.

Mr Brendan O'Connor interjecting

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