Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. We have heard of the instances where the CFMEU have sought to shut down sites because they do not like the tiler or they do not like the security firm, who are being blackballed by unions in favour of their mates. They will even shut down a site because they are not going to fly a CFMEU flag from a crane in Adelaide. What we also know about the CFMEU and other militant unions that are involved on these sites is that serious criminal activity takes place. Last year, Commissioner Ken Lay stated that there was intelligence which indicates that people who are related to bikies or organised motorcycle gangs are selling drugs on building sites. Operation Warrior, in Queensland—the CMC's biggest ever covert operation in 2012—found that a drug ring mastermind, Daniel Kalaja, also used a friend of the BLF union to score a job on a $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded Gold Coast university hospital project, despite never holding a job—never holding a legitimate or honest job. The CMC has already linked drug kingpin Kalaja to two union officials who have been jailed for their part in one of Queensland's biggest drug rings. Wayne Joseph Carter, a BLF organiser, was sentenced to eight years in jail after he and his brother joined Kalaja in the trade of drugs, including: methamphetamine; MDMA, ecstasy; and fantasy.

What we know is that those opposite like to say there is no link between organised motorcycle gangs and militant unions on building construction sites, but the people of Australia know that they are carving up building sites like drug kingpins carve up their distribution networks across our cities. That is why the ABCC needs to be restored. Safety and health in workplaces means you can go to work, without being sold drugs by people that unions let onto building sites.

Mr Wilkie interjecting—

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