Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence Industry, the Minister representing the Minister for Employment. What action is the government taking against officials of registered organisations who routinely break the law? Is the minister aware of any alternative approach?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fairfax for his question. This morning we witnessed one of those legendary train wreck interviews on Sky television between Tom Connell and the member for Watson, who was busily trying to look like he has many other things that are concerning him than listening to the answer to this question. We watched a train wreck interview between Tom Connell on Sky Television and the member for Watson about the bugbear which is the CFMEU, which the Labor Party cannot shake as long as the CFMEU is part of the inner circle of the Leader of the Opposition's advisers and funders. The member for Watson was asked eight times—he had eight different opportunities—about whether John Setka was fit to lead the CFMEU. Finally, Tom Connell said, 'Would you be pleased if the members decided that John Setka's leadership had had enough?' and the member for Watson said, 'I'm not going to tell the members of the union what to do.' The member for Watson will not tell members of the union what to do, but he is very happy for the union to tell the Labor Party what to do, he is very happy to let the CFMEU tell the Leader of the Opposition what to do, and he is very happy for the CFMEU to give $3 million of funding to the Labor Party since the Leader of the Opposition held that office, to be part of the preselections of candidates for this House and the state parliament, to be part of the policymaking process, to get the Labor Party to do the bidding of the CFMEU, led by a man who routinely breaks the law—he has been convicted and charged with at least 40 different offences over the course of the last few years, the latest one of which was blackmail—and was an honoured guest at the Leader of the Opposition's election night party.

He will not do the right thing, not like Bob Hawke and John Cain did in Victoria when they deregistered the BLF and disaffiliated from that union. When John Setka worked for the BLF, when he was a young official with the BLF and then folded into the CFMEU, Bob Hawke was a real leader of the Labor Party. This fellow, who is leading you all, is involved with an organisation led by a man with a criminal past who says it is okay to routinely defy the law. As the minister for immigration has said in the past: 'Happy to pay the fines. Couldn't care less.'

The action this opposition needs to take is to disaffiliate the CFMEU from the Labor Party. Stop taking their money. We will introduce in the spring session a bill to ban officials who routinely break the law from holding office in a registered organisation. We will introduce that bill in the spring session, and we expect the Leader of the Opposition to support it or will he again confirm that he is weak and soft on— (Time expired)