Claire Clutterham (Sturt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When it comes to the construction industry the focus of the Albanese Labor government is on creating a fair and transparent environment concentrated on ensuring that there are highly skilled and qualified workers in the various trades that we need to build a future made in Australia, including first and foremost to build the houses that this country needs. It's also focused on providing skilled and highly qualified educators within TAFE and other VET providers and within the apprenticeship sphere to ensure we have enough educators to train the workers we need to build a future made in Australia. The Albanese Labor government, under the leadership of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, is focused on ensuring that the environment that these workers and educators will contribute to is free of corruption, criminality or violence.

Corruption, criminality and violence will not be tolerated and is not tolerated in any part of the construction industry by this government. We do not accept it, and suggestions by the member for Goldstein to the contrary are false. We don't accept it. It can't be like that. If the environment is affected by corruption or criminality or violence, the potential workers that we need will be disincentivised to join the building and construction industry, and we know that these kinds of disincentives cannot exist. We cannot afford it, because there is too much building work to do. The problems, however, that were deeply embedded in the industry are decades in the making and they need to be solved. Let's be clear though. They can't be solved overnight, and it is unhelpful and unrealistic to expect that.

Rather than continually drawing attention to them in a manner which lacks construction and is unproductive, those on all sides of politics need to come to the table and act in a bipartisan manner to ensure that the problems are solved as fast as possible. When all parties understand and agree that creating an environment where Australians are incentivised to work in the building and construction sector is actually in the best interests of all Australians and when all parties seek to promote this important outcome rather than continually seeking to undermine it for obviously individual purposes, only then can meaningful reform take place.

The Australian Building and Construction Commission did not work. We know this. It was ineffective in dealing with the cultural and substantive issues that had been embedded within the industry for decades. That's why, quite rightly, the ABCC was abolished by the Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022. The act also established the National Construction Industry Forum, which provides advice to the government on a wide range of issues in the construction industry—including workplace relations, skills, safety, productivity and industry culture. It has a balanced membership, with members who have experience representing employees plus an equal number of members who have experienced representing employers in the building construction industry.

Further the joint agency working group—an alliance between regulators and law enforcement agencies—is working in a methodical, careful and measured manner to take action to stamp out corruption, criminality and violence from the construction industry. Other tangible action being taken to stamp this out is the scheme of administration applied to the CFMEU's construction division. The difference between the achievements of the administrator—only in effect for 15 months—and the now defunct ABCC, which was ineffective, could not be clearer. The administrator has removed or accepted the resignations of more than 60 staff; has developed a national code of conduct and statement of expectations for all staff; has cracked down on gifts, organised crime and menacing behaviours by setting out clear consequences; and has established inquiries into state branches of the CFMEU. This work will continue until there is an environment of lawful and effective union functioning.

There are no quick fixes here, but the Albanese Labor government is committed to the task. We will keep working with employers, contractors, unions, state and territory governments, regulators and law enforcement agencies to ensure this critical industry is lawful, safe, fair, productive and sustainable for the future. We need it to be. It's in the interests of all Australians that it is. So it would be helpful and in the interests of all Australians if all sides of politics recognised this and contributed constructively.

See this speech in context