Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

You can yell all you like but this is a fact. I was speaking to a Wagga Wagga builder tonight and he said: 'We don't need the thuggery of unions on our work sites. Unions are fine but everything should be in moderation. We want to be able to get on with doing what we do best and that is building homes, constructing buildings and doing it with good productivity and the ability to hire apprentices.' But this bill will not enable that productivity and will not enable builders to continue to hire workers in the sorts of ways that they are with the construction commission in place as it is now.

The commission was introduced in 2005 in response to the Cole royal commission, which found that the building and construction industry was rife with a complete disregard for the law. It catalogued more than 100 types of unlawful and inappropriate conduct. In today's workplaces and in this day and age we cannot have that. The member opposite might want that but the building industry cannot afford it and the national interest does not need it. The commission also found that existing regulatory bodies had insufficient powers and resources to enforce the law. That is why the Howard government introduced the Australian Building and Construction Commission. But Labor would demolish all that; the Prime Minister would demolish all that.

It is so interesting that the Prime Minister wants to do that. We have heard only today how the Prime Minister, when she was the shadow minister for health, said that insurance rebates were part of the family's budget, yet today we see the private health insurance rebate thrown straight out the window. When the Prime Minister was the education minister she took away independent youth allowance. And now the Prime Minister and the Labor Party want to take away the Australian Building and Construction Commission, which is doing its job and doing a very good job.

This bill will strip away the protections that enable workers to work in a safe and lawful environment. The replacement agency will, unfortunately, be a toothless tiger which will again roll out the red carpet to lawlessness, thuggery and violence. The new body that has been established within Fair Work Australia to replace the very successful office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner will not be, and is not, an independent body. It is controlled by the minister. It is not going to be what we would call a strong cop on the beat.

We need to have measures in place that enable fairness and safety. That is why we have the Australian Building and Construction Commission. It is doing its job; it is doing a good job. There are examples upon examples of what happened prior to 2005, before the coalition took the tough decision to return the building and construction industry to law and order. In August 2001, the Howard government established the Cole royal commission to look into what was in fact happening in the building industry. Commissioner Cole reported in March 2003, and the report catalogued, as I said, more than 100 different types of unlawful conduct in that sector. The Cole royal commission examples included payments being made to the CFMEU in Western Australia of more than $1½ million for so-called casual tickets, which is basically money paid in return for industrial peace on sites where not all workers were members of the union. What a disgrace! The Cole commission found that, of the $1½ million that had been paid, only $500,000 could be traced. So $1 million of this money paid to the CFMEU had just disappeared. That would be of no surprise to those opposite because money that is in the budget for all sorts of things just disappears. This is a government with—

See this speech in context