Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Reynolds for her question. Yes, I am, and, yes, they do. In July of last year the Federal Court fined the CFMEU and its official Bradley Upton $24,000 for racially abusing a site representative on a construction site. The court described the conduct as 'disgraceful behaviour' and found that Mr Upton made 'obscene remarks' to a site representative and told another to hit him after he became agitated about the meeting room assigned for discussions with workers. Mr Upton said to a site representative: 'Is this [expletive] acceptable to you? Is this [expletive] good for you [expletive] Americans … We won’t put up with you [expletive] Americans here.' The court also found that Mr Upton's conduct was:

… deplorable particularly so for someone acting in his official capacity … The language used as well as being repeatedly obscene, had a particularly nasty racist overtone.

In relation to the CFMEU the court said:

The CFMEU has a significant record of non-compliance with the provisions of industrial legislation.

The court also said:

There is a history over a number of years of contraventions of industrial laws by CFMEU officials for whom the CFMEU is responsible and which have involved those officials, variously, in using obscene and threatening language, making threats of assaults and in some cases involving scuffles and physical altercation.

On this side of the chamber, we refuse to stand up for bullying, intimidation and thuggery on worksites in Australia.