Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

It was wonderful pressure, as Senator McKenzie has noted, from the coalition, including members in the other place, such as Mr Tim Wilson, and Senator McKenzie, me and Senator Hume. Many of us have spoken on this. It is very important, but what we need to do now is continue to ask the question as to why Mr Zach Smith still sits on the National Construction Industry Forum, which provides advice to Minister Rishworth. Minister Rishworth is silent on that. She hasn't answered any questions in relation to that.

She's also still silent to questions from Mr Tim Wilson, from the other place, that were sent to her over a month ago in relation to these allegations—complete silence. We have had in this chamber, on a number of different occasions, obstructions to attempts set up a Senate inquiry into the administration of the CFMEU. We will persist with that. We will keep persisting because it is really important for Australians to have an understanding of what is going on within that administration and to be reassured that it is being effective, and, if it is not being effective, then it needs to be held to account. There is nothing unreasonable about that—nothing whatsoever.

That administration was set by this place, the Parliament of Australia, and this Senate should have the right, via its committee process, to scrutinise the function of that administration when there's information coming to light, via the media and whistleblowers, that suggests the criminal and corrupt conduct has been ongoing during the administration. We're not talking about matters that occurred before the administration. We're talking about matters ongoing after the administration had been established.

We've also had some commentary that this is an attack on everyday CFMEU rank-and-file members. It is absolutely not. They deserve this inquiry into this administration. They deserve to know whether the union movement, to whom they pay their dues, is actually doing work in their best interests or is still a protection racket for vested interests. Anybody that truly values the work of those workers would be supporting this inquiry, because this inquiry would do one of two things. It would expose and stop the ongoing criminal and corrupt conduct, or it would lay the matter to rest, and we could go, 'There's nothing to see here.' But we know that's not going to happen, because we have seen so many allegations around the ongoing kickbacks, the ongoing underworld activity and a cycle of corruption that keeps going.

Mr Zach Smith ordered one of his organisers to meet with Mick Gatto. How can we explain that as being a normal part of an organisation? I asked those questions to the Fair Work Commission in Senate estimates. We also asked the question of whether or not Mr Zach Smith was still meeting with Mr Gatto, and the Fair Work Commission said they would have grave concerns if that were the case. Guess what? It was the case. Further to that, the administrator knew about it before the meetings. So we want to know what else the administrator has known about. We want to know what else they have turned a blind eye to. And we also want to know what Minister Rishworth has known, what the Prime Minister has known and when they knew it.