Ben Small (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Whilst it isn't always the crime that gets you, by golly, the cover up always does. Isn't it amazing that at the first rays of sunlight shone here on union corruption and the stench of its ties to the Labor Party we see the cockroaches scampering for the corners, seeking refuge in the only place they know: the dark shadows of the underworld in Victoria. It is staggering to listen to the member for Moore speak of amnesia and selective amnesia whilst completely neglecting that the very first act of this government in terms of its industrial relations agenda was to defund and abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the very independent regulator that we put as a tough cop on the beat to address union corruption and the cost impacts that it has on the construction of literally everything in this country, from homes all the way through to the big-build infrastructure projects that are the focus of this.

Is this somehow a right-wing hit job? No. Let's go back through the very history of how Geoffrey Watson SC came to investigate these matters. This wasn't initiated by the Liberal Party; this was initiated by Zach Smith, the then national secretary of the CFMEU, responding to unthinkable allegations made public by Nine. His report—two chapters of that report—addressed some $15 billion of taxpayer money, worse than sprayed up against the wall like the rest of the waste this government oversees, funnelled to organised crime in this country. If the government were serious about addressing corruption and underworld criminality in this country, that would be worth investigating. But no, instead we find the Minister for Workplace Relations, the minister assisting the Prime Minister and this other cavalcade of Labor MPs come through here blustering: 'This report—what report? It was not a report to government. I don't know about those two chapters.' They do not want to know the answers to the very real questions that Australians need answered here.

In fact, worse than that, the member for Perth crowed about some 121 members of the CFMEU that have been expelled from that organisation. In the context of some $15 billion of taxpayer money allegedly directed to underworld crime in Australia, that equates to some $124 million per individual booted out of that union. If that stacks up to pass the pub test, then I have been drinking at the wrong establishments my entire life. In fact, I look forward to tuning in to 'Tim TV'. I'll be one of the first subscribers provided that we get 'The Possum Hour'. What we got there for 10 minutes from the minister assisting the Prime Minister was nothing short of rip-roaring comedy.

The CFMEU Labor cartel has cost Victorians and indeed all Australians some $15 billion in money now. The intriguing thing is just how much of it ends up back in Labor Party coffers. But of course this is the sort of thing that a government that's committed to scrutiny, transparency, being the most open in history, wants nothing to do with. That's why we saw the Prime Minister and the Minister for Workplace Relations shut down parliamentary scrutiny of that. We understand now, in the face of these revelations today, that this corruption is systemic, it is endemic and it is industrial in its scale.

The Prime Minister said that the Labor Party wouldn't accept CFMEU donations, but we know that the AEC disclosures show just how often they've been cashing the cheques of their cartel mates. Minister Rishworth should release the full, unredacted report, including the two dirty chapters that nobody wants to talk about, or else risk being complicit in a cover-up of corruption on an industrial scale in this country. The millions of dollars of CFMEU donations to the Labor Party surely don't buy those sorts of policy outcomes. I understand the pressure that must be brought to bear upon the minister, because you've even got the ALP president, Mr Wayne Swan, chairing Cbus, which is linked to the CFMEU as an industry super fund. The rivers of gold between this corruption and the Labor Party deserve sunlight to disinfect them once and for all.

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