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

We've just heard 10 minutes of unadulterated, unobscured, constant attack on the shadow minister, who has raised a matter of very significant importance about alleged corruption in the building industry. Madam Deputy Speaker Claydon, you have heard me speak about corruption in the building industry for 10 long years. I have spoken about this up hill and down dale. Whenever I spoke about it, those opposite—'Nothing to see here.' It was all white noise, nothing, there's no problem with the CFMEU. They kept taking their money, their donations, from the CFMEU.

It wasn't until, I think, last year, when Channel 9 did an expose which put the issue beyond doubt, that we saw the member for Watson and the Prime Minister say, 'We had no idea about the extent of this problem'—or that there was, in fact, a problem at all. It reminds me of the old Suncorp ad. The Queenslanders on my side will get this: 'Charter boat? What charter boat?'—nothing to see here. Well, Geoffrey Watson has belled the cat and identified that there is likely somewhere between $15 billion and $30 billion worth of corrupt payments that have been made within the building industry.

Madam Deputy Speaker, you know as well as I know—and many people in this chamber would know—that I used to work as a carpenter in the building industry in Victoria. On my first day in the building industry in Victoria, I experienced the bullying and corruption of the CFMEU predecessor, the Builders Labourers' Federation. As an 18-year-old kid, I experienced it, and that's part of the reason why I'm sitting on this side of the House today, because Norm Gallagher was a rookie at the end of the day. What we have seen time and time and time again—businesses have come to see me, consistently over the last 10 years, and talk to me about the standover tactics of the CFMEU, the fact that they can't get a start on a job unless they agree to pay kickbacks to the CFMEU. When I start talking about this, those on the other side of the House go very quiet, because I'm not talking out of a textbook; I'm talking out of experience—35 years, now close to 40 years, experience in the building industry as a chippie, a builder and then a construction barrister.

The CFMEU has overseen the greatest corruption in this country, in Victoria and in Queensland, and that's terrible in itself. But do you know what makes it even worse? You guys, the Labor Party, have taken millions of dollars in donations from the CFMEU. The Prime Minister, last year, said, 'We're going to stop taking donations from the CFMEU'—but they didn't. Not only did they not stop; you would think that, with this sort of an expose, the Labor Party would say: 'You know what? We'll do the right thing and we'll donate that money to charity'—to Mates4Mates or some charitable organisation. But, no, that money has stayed in the Labor Party coffers. I say, 'Shame on you.' Shame on the Labor Party, because that money is blood money. I don't use that term loosely, because the CFMEU have overseen physical harm on building sites and threats, particularly against women working on building sites—and even against public servants. I was in here every day talking about it, and the Labor Party did nothing. The Labor Party continued to take the money from the CFMEU. You continue to take the donations—'Nothing to see here.'

See this speech in context