Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm happy to ask for an extension of time. I'm just warming up! The coalition was the first party to seek, or in fact implement, a corruption commission, back in 1988. So we have, as a conservative political force, been the ground breaker. While we as a party support the NACC, it's important, as I've said, that we take serious care to get the balance right. We've engaged in this process in good faith through the parliamentary processes and through the committee processes. We're committed to being a constructive opposition. The coalition opposition is supportive of good policy where it's good policy but, where it's not, we will call it out.

I am concerned about the doubletalk of those on the other side of the House. They talk the big talk about integrity, but what we've seen in the last couple of weeks in this place, through their Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Bill 2022 that passed this House in the last sitting week, was the abolition of the ABCC. I'm not going to talk at any great length, as I normally do, about what Labor do in relation to the ABCC. But what's quite amazing is that they talk the big talk about integrity and yet, when it comes to the CFMMEU—which the Federal Court has acknowledged as the 'greatest recidivist organisation in Australia'—they've removed the watchdog in relation to that union.

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