Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

The motion was unavailable at the time of publishing.

We have a fundamental problem at the heart of the Australian democracy right now, where we have a union that is operating beyond the law. This isn't my opinion; this is an opinion of the whistleblowers of the CFMEU. We know full well that the administration was established more than 15 months ago by the Albanese government, shortly after there were deep, serious allegations of cartel kickbacks from graft connected to Australian organised crime, criminal gangs and bikie gangs on public projects—that the government put the CFMEU in administration because they believed that there was something structurally wrong. There was something structurally wrong deep within the culture of the CFMEU for one reason: that the Albanese government took the CFMEU off the leash as a result of the abolition of the ABCC. Ever since then, we've had a continuing problem with the CFMEU. We have had issues of corruption directly at the heart of our democracy, and there needs to be proper accountability and responsibility.

We've seen this very directly in recent weeks, where there have been a number of whistleblowers who have come out publicly and said that the situation of corruption in the CFMEU has got worse since it's been put in administration. As a consequence, we now have a situation where we have referred the matter to a Senate inquiry to properly investigate the issues around CFMEU corruption. The minister has been blocking at every point an attempt for an inquiry—

Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move, under standing order 45(c):

That order of the day No. 3, government business, be called on immediately.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that order of the day No. 3 be called on immediately, as moved by the assistant minister.