David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm glad Senator Sheldon came back into the chamber to hear me speak, because he put out a challenge to those on this side who actually knew a worker.

Let me tell you about my grandfather. He was an ambulanceman on the docks who suffered under the Painters and Dockers Union. He was harassed the whole time, although he was there to protect their lives and to save their lives when there was an accident. Do you want to know why I don't like unions? It's because, like the Painters and Dockers Union, they are full of thugs. My other grandfather was a carpenter who worked on building sites. Again, he was harassed by the BLF—the Builders Labourers Federation—and he was driven off building sites. Do you want to talk about people who know what it's like to be harassed by a union? My two grandfathers were, that's who. Look at both of those unions, now both deregistered. So I will not be lectured to by those on that side about the thuggery of unions and what they will do and the lengths that they will go to in order to harass those who stand up against them or won't join them. I just won't hear it.

Right now we are experiencing some of the highest costs of living, as inflation goes through the roof. The current headline annual inflation is 6.1 per cent, which is the highest rate of inflation in almost 32 years. It is the highest rate of inflation since Labor's 'recession we had to have'. I think we're in for another one. The price of fuel has risen by 32 per cent in just a year, with prices rising for the eighth consecutive quarter, by 4.2 per cent in the June quarter. The coalition's cuts to fuel excise are coming to an end on 29 September, meaning that under this government fuel prices are going to rise even further. Non-discretionary goods and services rose by 1.8 per cent in the quarter, to be 7.6 per cent higher through the year.

Australians are having to make cost-saving measures, which for many Australians is going to feel like going back to the deprivations they felt under lockdown—particularly in my home state of Victoria, where the Labor state government locked people down for the longest time in the world. People are going to have to make sacrifices in the name of being able to pay their bills.

Australians need help from government, with cost-of-living pressures higher now than ever. However, Labor seems to have decided that now they are in government they no longer have to campaign and win votes, and easing cost-of-living pressures was just a slogan during their election campaign, and helping Australians is no longer their priority. In the first 100 days of this Labor government we saw nothing happen. All we've seen is junkets, photo-ops and a bit of a talkfest here and there. No plan has been made to help Australians with the cost-of-living pressures that Labor promised to fix.

What are the Labor Party doing about it now? Nothing. Their priority seems to be very clearly to help their union paymasters by reducing the ABCC's powers to the bare legal minimum. One must ask, Senator Sheldon—through you, Chair—why is stripping the ABCC of its powers such a priority for this Labor government? Why is dismantling the ABCC so important to the Labor Party that it was one of the first two announcements they made? Why is it, with all the pressures facing Australians every day, they decided this is more significant to them than looking after Australians? Well, it's pretty obvious. I'll tell you why: it's to keep their union donations rolling in. The CFMMEU over the past 20 years have provided the Labor Party with more than $16 million in donations. This is the very union where officials have previously been caught allegedly cursing at, spitting at and threatening to gang-rape and even kill women, and my good friend Senator Reynolds outlined more atrocities that this union has done.

We heard the leader of the CFMMEU, John Setka, had been found guilty of domestic violence on multiple occasions, including an incident where he bashed his partner's head against the table repeatedly and another where he pushed her down a staircase. Is he one of the hoi polloi you don't me to talk to? I don't want to talk to him. I don't want him running any organisation. The Prime Minister is a fan of saying, 'The standard you walk past is the standard you accept'—General Morrison's quote, as we heard before, which the Prime Minister seems to have grabbed hold of. Yet by abolishing the ABCC, what is the standard that the Prime Minister is saying he is going to accept—that same behaviour of John Setka, the same behaviours we heard outlined by Senator Reynolds? This sort of union thuggery is unacceptable, and the Prime Minister should not accept it.

Let us not forget that in analysis undertaken by EY it was outlined that abolishing the ABCC would create ongoing challenges which are likely to be more economically disruptive in this currently harsh business environment. Specifically, labour costs could increase by around 8.8 per cent, and productivity, something we heard this government talk so much about in its talkfest last week, could decline by 9.3 per cent. Not only that, but the output of the construction industry could fall by around $35.4 billion by 2030 and overall economic activity could decline by $47.5 billion by 2030. This would come at a potential cost to taxpayers in the order of $9.5 billion by 2029 and an estimated reduction in investment of $45.6 billion by 2030.

So we see the Labor Party are willing to back thugs and throw the construction industry into chaos, all so they can continue to take their donations, and this will affect all Australians—outside the construction industry. The last time the Labor Party abolished the ABCC the cost of building infrastructure, so important to our recovery, rose an astounding 30 per cent. That's a 30 per cent increase in cost to build hospitals, schools, roads, railways and other critical infrastructure. This is at a time when Victorian government infrastructure project costs are blowing out wildly, and those on that side are going to push the costs even higher. The Labor Party talk about transparency, but when it comes to transparency about unions they won't have a bar of it. As the Australian Industry Group said, the decision to scrap parts of the code and disempower the commission is a backwards step in the fight against bullying and intimidation that would result in health and safety risks and would slow the delivery of infrastructure projects such as roads, hospitals and schools. This means that Australian tax dollars will be squandered just so the Labor Party's paymasters will be kept happy. Former Boral CEO, Mike Kane, has said that competition will be reduced as unions pick their preferred contractors and shut out others. That's not this Australia. That's not how we work. That's not how to run an economy.

The ABCC does critical work supporting subcontractors with over $1.6 million paid to them, following ABCC intervention in the 2020-21 period. This is money going back into the pockets of everyday Australians. It is becoming clearer and clearer by the day that this government is good at talking the talk but not walking the walk when it comes to integrity. The Prime Minister said he would be a prime minister for all Australians, but it is clear from his short time in office that he's concerned about one thing and one thing only: protecting the protection rackets that he calls unions. We just saw, in this last week, the Jobs and Skills Summit. Despite unions representing less than 10 per cent of the private sector workforce, they had 33 seats at the table. Meanwhile, small business—the engine room of our economy—which represents 41 per cent of our workforce had only one seat. It is really a despicable representation of where the Labor government's priorities lie.

Just today, we've seen the ABCC release a statement stating that it has started a Federal Circuit and Family Court action against the CFMMEU, the CEPU and two officials, following alleged right of entry breaches at the 264-apartment residential tower project at 443 Queen Street, Brisbane. The ABCC is alleging in its statement of claim filed in the court that the CFMMEU official Matthew Vonhoff and CEPU official Wendel Moloney contravened section 500 of the Fair Work Act 2009. The ABCC statement of claim further says Mr Moloney behaved in an abusive and intimidatory manner towards a senior site manager when he responded to a query about what was going on, saying words to the effect of: 'If you speak to anyone, it will be the last time you work in the EBA industry.' Is this really what you want to put your name to, guys? Is this really how you see yourselves? Is it the side that you want to support? It's beyond me that you can do this.

These are the people that the Albanese government is protecting by dismantling the ABCC. If the Prime Minister can actually say the words, 'The standard you walk past is the standard that you accept,' then he's got to hang his head in shame and explain why he backs those people over everyday Australians. However, the Labor party are not just walking past this disruptive, reprehensible behaviour; they are providing an avenue for it to continue and turning their back, whistling a loud tune and telling Australians to look the other way.