MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Senator HUME (Victoria) (17:05): Last night's 60 Minutes revealed those fresh allegations of misconduct within the CFMEU. It comes 15 months after the joint investigation by 60 Minutes, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, which uncovered that widespread corruption, which was hiding in plain sight. Following that expose, the federal government pledged to take swift action and clean up the CFMEU.
But how do we think that has gone? Given the CFMEU remains entangled with figures like John Setka, Mick Gatto and associates of its Victorian head, Zach Smith, I'd say it hasn't gone too well at all. Appointing an administrator was supposed to signal real change, but, instead, we're seeing a system that not just tolerates corruption but recycles its operatives and shields the union rather than uproots that entrenched criminal influence.
There are biker gangs, underworld figures and cartel kickbacks that have long exploited the CFMEU's reach into construction projects, into government contracts and, indeed, into industry super funds as well. Until the cash flows and the kickbacks stop, the problem will only deepen, and taxpayers, workers and small businesses will end up paying the price. Mark Irving KC was appointed as the administrator to clean up the CFMEU and to restore integrity.
But, instead, he has been exposed as not just ineffectual but even potentially part of the problem. Union official Charles Farrugia has publicly accused that administrator of protecting figures like John Setka rather than removing them. This isn't stopping corruption.
It's not just tolerating corruption. It's not just turning a blind eye to corruption; it's actually enabling it. It's enabling it even further.
And those officials at the CFMEU are laughing. They're laughing at us, they're laughing at the parliament and they're laughing at Labor. How can the minister possibly say that the actions of the administrator are the strongest possible and that she has full confidence in him when this is what is going on?
It's not the administrator that's uncovering the corruption; it's journalists that are uncovering it. The administrator elevated John Perkovic to the second-most senior position in the branch. Then, all of a sudden, last week, he was removed after revelations in the media that he had taken bribes and other corrupting benefits from labour hire firms.
Ash Howe, a now former CFMEU delegate who was accused of bashing a union official—an attack which was an open secret in the CFMEU's Melbourne headquarters, mind you—was sacked only after media questioning. The minister's blind defence reveals a much deeper problem here. The Albanese government doesn't want to fix the problems in the CFMEU.
It doesn't want to fix the CFMEU corruption because it fears the consequences for its own power. Let's not pretend that the CFMEU is just another union. That's what they would like you to think.
That's what the government would like you to think—that, when we speak about the CFMEU, it's some sort of ideological warfare against all unions. That is not at all the case. Unions play a very important role in our civil society but the CFMEU is a blight upon the union movement, and they know it but they're too afraid to do anything about it.
It's deeply intertwined with those opposite. When the Prime Minister sits at the ALP National Executive, he sits shoulder-to-shoulder with Zach Smith, the CFMEU's Victorian head. He's a bloke still having coffees with John Setka and his mates linked to organised crime.
It's absolutely staggering that the Prime Minister of this country shares a governing table with someone from a union who is currently under criminal investigation. It's absolutely staggering, although it does explain an awful lot about Labor's decision to abolish the Australian building and corruption commission as soon as they got elected. There was nobody calling for that policy, nobody calling for the abolition of the ABCC, except the CFMEU.
They got into power and immediately did the CFMEU's bidding. That was their first order of business. The government didn't just silence the watchdog that actually had teeth; it euthanised it.
But corruption in the CFMEU is not the only issue that we need to be concerned about. Let's face it; it's not just the intimidation of those that are on the building sites that is the problem. The CFMEU's involvement in construction is pushing up the of cost of construction for all Australians—potentially by up to 30 per cent, according to some reports.
In some areas, CFMEU linked premiums are being added to construction projects—10 to 15 per cent—specifically through demands for union approved subcontractors and other costly stipulations. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Neill ): Senator Hume, your time has expired. The time for the discussion has expired as well.