Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Women) | Link to this | Hansard source

This evening I'm going to talk about something that really concerns me, and that concern was compounded again this week. Last night we had debate in this place in relation to schedule 1, part 9 of the Workplace Relations Legislation Amendment (Building Cooperative Workplaces No. 1) Bill 2026. That legislation allows for the Commonwealth to preference supply chains with union backed EBAs. What does that actually mean? It means that it allows the Commonwealth to discriminate for companies that have those EBAs in place. So if you have two like-for-like businesses and one has an EBA and one doesn't the government can choose the one with the EBA without it being discriminatory.

What else did we see last night? We saw the Prime Minister on 7.30. We saw the Prime Minister attempting to defend what is currently happening in terms of the revelations of even further corruption, criminal conduct and infiltration of organised crime in the construction sector, particularly in the CFMEU in Victoria. The Prime Minister said that he has no tolerance for corruption. The Prime Minister said that he knows that there is corruption in the construction industry. The Prime Minister said that he has sought assurances from the Victorian Premier, Jacinta Allan, that no taxpayer funds have gone into the pockets of organised crime. Do you know what Premier Jacinta Allan said today? She said that there was no corruption, that the $15 billion was because of inflation.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Inflation in the bribes.

Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Women) | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, Senator Scarr—that could well be it! So he's saying that corruption in the construction industry is a problem and that the CFMEU is a problem, the Fair Work Commission have told us that, independent eminent investigators have told us that and we've heard that from the Queensland commission of inquiry, but now Jacinta Allan is saying: 'No, it's Albo's fault. It's because of the inflation. It's his fault that—

Order! Please refer to members of the other place by their correct titles.

Apologies, Acting Deputy President. So Premier Allan said that it's Prime Minister Albanese's fault, that the inflationary pressures of Treasurer Jim Chalmers and the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, are to blame for the $15 billion that has been lost in Victoria. I found that very, very interesting.

Yet here we are today. Today's motion that I put to the Senate for an inquiry has once again failed. Once again, it has failed.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Shame! Who voted against it?

Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Women) | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor and the Greens voted against it. So there we go. This is the fourth time actually, Senator Scarr, that Labor and the Greens have blocked an inquiry into the CFMEU. Twice they told me that I was anti worker and that I didn't care about corruption in construction. So then I amended it to include corruption in construction. I actually changed it and called it 'corruption in construction'. And guess what? They still rejected it. So I don't know. What do we do? Labor and the Greens, they're always talking about transparency and accountability, except for when it comes to their own vested interests.

The Greens, in particular, always talk about how bad corruption is. They are, in my view, anti corruption. I expect that members of the Greens would feel very uncomfortable about the fact that today they voted against an inquiry into corruption in construction.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

What do the people say?

Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Women) | Link to this | Hansard source

They would say that they are disappointed, that these are not the Greens that they thought they knew. They should feel uncomfortable about it, because it's wrong. I'm not uncomfortable about what an inquiry of this nature would uncover because, if there is criminal conduct, if there is corruption and if there is organised crime involved in our construction sector, we need to get it out. The corruption tax, the CFMEU tax or whatever you want to call it is adding between 15 and 30 per cent to the cost of infrastructure projects, and that is then compounding additional costs into the housing construction sector as well. In a housing crisis, we cannot afford to do that. I say to the Prime Minister again: the standard that you walk past is the standard that you accept, and, if you truly reject organised crime and corruption, you need to act now. (Time expired)