Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the consideration of the first quarterly report of the Australian Building and Construction Commission for 2019-20. The ABCC is supposed—and I stress 'supposed'—to have a dualistic mandate to regulate unions and employers in the construction industry. But this is an organisation that practises this mandate with a wired-in double standard—one standard for the unions, fighting for the recovery of tens of millions of dollars of wages and superannuation that's stolen every year in the construction industry, and another standard for the shonky employers ripping the workers off. How do we know that? Well, let's recap. We know the following from answers provided in Senate estimates in October last year. We know that the ABCC has spent three times as much taxpayers' money prosecuting unions and working people as they actually recovered in stolen wages or superannuation. Since the end of 2016 the ABCC has made no referrals—I repeat: no referrals—for sham contracting to the Fair Work Ombudsman. That is none—zero. They have never investigated what role employer associations and their members play in instances of wage and superannuation theft. They have threatened federal contractors with a loss of contracts if their worksites fly the historic Eureka flag, or if workers display union stickers on their hard hats. Well may you ask, where are the free-speech warriors of the coalition on this abuse of the right to freedom of expression in Australia?

In addition, less than 15 per cent of the ABCC's internal legal costs are spent on investigating or prosecuting theft of wages and entitlements or instances of sham contracting. Since 2016 they've launched six times as many prosecutions against the CFMMEU as they have against employers. They've successfully prosecuted only 14 employers but have found the time to prosecute over 200 individual workers. You would think that with these figures in the public domain, that in the interests of appearing less bias, the ABCC would be refocusing on targeting wage theft. That they would want to honour their legislative mandate to police the employers in the industry doing the wrong thing. Instead, last month the ABCC Commissioner, Stephen McBurney, announced it would be increasing the number of workplace inspectors, specifically targeted at unions. More boots on the ground to inspect hard hats for stickers. More boots on the ground to check flag poles for the Eureka flag. But no more boots on the ground to investigate instances of sham contracting, illegal phoenixing, safety issues or the millions upon millions in wages and entitlements stolen every year by shonky employers.

We now have the Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter, promising action on wage theft. Any such action will be meaningless in the construction industry whilst a regulator is more preoccupied with flags, stickers and prosecuting unions than going after the companies undercutting the industry through wage theft and bad conditions. Good companies are competing with dodgy companies.

National construction secretary Dave Noonan has described the state of the construction industry:

(Employers) repeatedly flout the law, exploit their workers and attack union officials when they try to stand up for our members… Dedicated laws and harsher penalties for wage theft will be worthless without a regulator that is up to the job of policing employers in the building industry.

The ABCC wants to crow about recovering $1 million in wages entitlements in an industry which has $320 million stolen in unpaid wages and superannuation every year. It's a disgrace.

In contrast, the CFMMEU have recovered close to $60 million in wages for its members over the past six years. It should be no surprise to senators that when it comes to fighting wage theft the CFMMEU is at least 60 times more effective than the ABCC. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted.