Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Youth) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, here we go again. It seems like the CFMEU saga will never, ever end. But this time it isn't just another messy chapter in the long and troubled history of the CFMEU. It is something far more serious. It's an industrial-scale cover-up that goes to the heart of this Albanese Labor government. It has been revealed that the Prime Minister's own appointed CFMEU administrator has ordered the removal of several sections of the report into the corruption that exists between the CFMEU and the Australian Labor Party. It wasn't simply a typo; it was the removal of sections—whole chapters, in fact—that detailed the connection between corrupt and criminal conduct inside the CFMEU and the Labor Party.

Let's be clear about what this means. The opposition wrote to the administrator last year. We lodged freedom of information requests. We wrote directly to Minister Rishworth seeking the full release of the report. We asked for transparency. We asked for sunlight. Instead, we now discover that the sections exposing the deep heart of corruption between the CFMEU and the Labor Party have been redacted—whitewashed, scrubbed from the public's view. According to Geoffrey Watson, anti-corruption expert and author of this report, it was because he was directed to remove those sections, directed by the government's own appointed administrator to remove references that connected the CFMEU to the Australian Labor Party.

This is a complete and utter lack of accountability and transparency, all from a government that went to the 2025 election promising transparency to the Australian people. What a disgrace. This comes after the Prime Minister told the Australian people he would not take CFMEU donations, only for Australian Electoral Commission disclosures to reveal that that was another broken promise. This report, in its unredacted form, reportedly highlights that some $15 billion of Australian taxpayer money has been washed through a cartel network involving the CFMEU and the Australian Labor Party—$15 billion.

That is a huge number. It's around about the same amount of money as the childcare support that Australians get. At a time when families are struggling with their mortgages, when rents are soaring and when young Australians are being locked out of homeownership, what sits over the top of all of this? It is a criminal cartel tax on Australia's housing industry, driven by corrupt conduct and protected by political interference. Everyday Australians are paying more for construction. Young Australians are paying more for their first home. And this government has been running interference to stop the truth from coming out. How is that transparency?

Last year, time and again, we sought parliamentary scrutiny. We sought Senate inquiries. We sought answers in question time. We sought proper examination of the relationship between the CFMEU and the Labor Party. And what did we see? We saw questions being shut down. We saw inquiries being blocked. We saw debate being guillotined. But what do we truly expect from this government? Do we expect anything else? The Labor Party, with assistance from what appears to be their coalition partner in the Greens, have repeatedly run interference for those at the top of the CFMEU tree who are engaging in corrupt and criminal conduct.

Now the truth is emerging. But this chamber should not have to wait for drip-fed revelations. The minister must release the full, unredacted non-whitewashed report now—not a sanitised version, not a politically convenient summary, but the whole report. Australians deserve to know: What did the minister know, and when did she know it? Why was the administrator allowed to excise chapters linking corrupt conduct to the Labor Party? And why has the government consistently run interference to shield the Prime Minister from scrutiny?

Let me say this: the administrator's position is now completely and utterly untenable. To seek the removal of not just a few lines but entire chapters detailing connection between that sort of conduct and the governing party of this country is simply extraordinary. This is not just about industrial relations. It is about the integrity of public life. It's about whether a government can allow a cartel culture to flourish in exchange for political support and donations. It's about whether taxpayers' money is being funnelled through the corrupt network while Australians struggle to pay their bills. Wake up, Albanese government! Wake up!