Fair Work Amendment (Disqualified Officers) Bill 2026

Senator SHELDON (New South Wales—Chief Government Whip in the Senate) (09:28): I rise to speak on the Fair Work Amendment (Disqualified Officers) Bill 2026 and about the misrepresentation of the administrator, Michael Crosby, and the 7.30 report. I leave for the record—it's already on there—that that's been misrepresented just now. Let me say clearly from the beginning that there is no place for corruption, criminality or any form of violence in any workplace.

That's why we took the strongest possible action by appointing an independent administrator to the CFMEU in 2024, and, in the two years since, the same CFMEU administration put in place by the Albanese government has done more to eliminate corruption than those opposite did in a decade. Over 200 individual office holders have been removed, of them, 27 senior leadership positions.

The old leadership of the union that existed in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, many of which were under the Liberals and Nationals, are all gone. Senator Hume stood in this chamber talking about the dangers of John Setka, but what she failed to mention was that it was actually the entire time the Liberals and Nationals were in government that John Setka remained at the helm of the CFMEU.

For nearly a decade, those opposite failed to deal with any issues within the construction industry, and now they're doing the same thing again, putting forward a farcical bill. This bill doesn't do anything to protect working conditions. It doesn't do anything to address the dangerous, deadly conditions in construction—conditions that resulted in 15.5 per cent of all workplace deaths between 2003 and 2024.

That's 761 deaths, 761 families torn apart. It doesn't do anything to address wage theft that runs rampant in the industry. The Fair Work Ombudsman in May this year investigated employers of building construction apprentices and trainees and found 68 per cent were breaking workplace laws.

That's more than two out of three employers. That investigation led to more than $750,000 being recovered in back payments in just 15 months. In my home state of New South Wales, the CFMEU recovered $4.6 million in lost wages in the last 18 months alone and more than $3.8 million in unpaid super on top of that, bringing the total to over $8.4 million in lost pay.

That's over $8.4 million in pay that working people had earned but did not receive until the union stepped in and fought to get it back. I thank the officials and the organisers who did the work to recover that money, because, without someone standing beside these workers and chasing down what they were owed, much of that money would have stayed in the pockets of dodgy construction companies.

Those shonky operators don't just rip off their employees; they're also ripping off the decent businesses doing the right thing. The companies paying proper wages, paying super and keeping safe workplaces are forced to compete against these bottom feeders who cut every corner they can to put in the cheapest bids and win contracts. Those are the kinds of thieves and shonks who are being protected, and you are giving an advantage to them with the way that you carry on—the kinds of shonks that unions are facing head on and taking on.

I know I mentioned superannuation earlier, and that's a touchy subject for those opposite at the moment, with the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation all fighting over who gets the credit for going after working people's retirement savings first. But this is what the union is actually dealing with. Just last year, the ABC reported that Australian workers in the building construction industry were losing $4.7 billion in unpaid super every year, and construction is one of the industries identified as being at the highest risk of unpaid super.

The problem in this industry doesn't begin and end with a handful of CFMEU officials. Accountability applies across the board, and it must include bosses. In July this year, Dr Eugene Schofield-Georgeson, one of Australia's leading industrial relations and labour scholars and a senior lecturer at UTS, published a major study called Explaining corruption in the Australian construction union: a critical perspective.

He writes: Another routine part of life for workers and union officials in the construction industry involves physical threats, intimidation and violence by property developers and their criminal associates. And of course those opposite won't listen. He goes on to say: Construction workers themselves have reported that employers sometimes enforce discipline on job-sites by recruiting organised crime figures to threaten, intimidate and stand-over them.

But you'll never hear about that from the Liberals, the Nationals or One Nation. You'll rarely hear about dodgy employers and gangster bosses dragging the entire industry down with them. You'll never get mentions of employers exploiting their workforce in their speeches, media comments or any proposed bills.

Just last year, the administrator's interim report outlined shocking allegations against a major construction company, Future Form. There were allegations that workers were being denied proper wages and superannuation, pushed into sham contracting arrangements and exposed to serious safety risks. And there were allegations of mafia-style intimidation aimed at silencing a union official from digging into it.

According to that report, in October 2024, two masked men came to the union official's home and spray painted profanity-filled graffiti across the property, including calling him a 'CFMEU dog' while he was away and his wife and young children slept inside. Then a few months later, after he uncovered the further suspected safety breaches involving Future Form at the Western Sydney airport site and forced a temporary halt to work, things got even more dangerous.

His car and boat were doused in petrol and set alight while he and his family were inside. Imagine that—you, your wife, your kids all asleep inside and then you wake up to find your car and boat in flames. And, of course, those opposite are laughing and grinning about all that.

Well, that's real people that are standing up for working people. Then in June 2025, workers contacted— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator O'Sullivan ): Senator McKenzie, on a point of order? Senator McKenzie: The senator reflected on behaviour that was not actually occurring in the chamber in his speech.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes. I think, while it wasn't directed at any individual, Senator Sheldon, it would assist the chamber if you did withdraw. Senator SHELDON: I withdraw.

Then a few months later, after he uncovered further suspected safety breaches, I repeat: his car and boat were doused in petrol and set alight while he and his family were inside. Imagine that: you, your wife, your kids all asleep inside and then you wake up to find your car and boat in flames. Then in June 2025, workers contacted him saying that the site was unsafe, so he issued notices to audit Future Form.

The very next day, a relative of this union official was jumped in a car park by several men who claimed to represent Future Form. They told him they had followed him home and they knew where he worked. They knew where the union official's family was.

They even knew that they were at the dentist at the time. The message they wanted to pass on was simple: stop investigating Future Form. The allegations helped trigger an independent Sydney Metro investigation, which found suspected worker underpayments, inadequate insurance coverage and tax fraud.

In May this year, the New South Wales government acted on those findings, with Future Form being removed from the Western Sydney airport project. But unfortunately, this was just one of many cases against Future Form. I was recently told about a young construction worker who says he experienced first-hand how Future Form treated workers on his site.

I won't name him here, but he's a young dad in his mid-20s with young kids who's been working in construction for years. He says he was desperate to work when he took a job on at the Sydney residential development being built by one of Australia's biggest property groups, Mirvac, where Future Form was operating. On this first morning when he turned up wearing his hi-vis shirt from his previous construction job, he was told to take it off and never wear it again.

He was told 'You are with Future Form.' He was promised $40 an hour and told he would keep his weekends free to spend time with his kids, but things started to change soon after. His pay was held back to pressure him to work Saturdays and, for a period, he was being paid in cash without payslips. Then, after the union came onto the site, the workers were suddenly put on the books.

His payslips named a company he had never heard of. He worked more than 50 hours in one week, but his payslip only recorded a fraction of that. When he questioned why, he was effectively told that, if he didn't like it, he could find another job.

He was then threatened with losing his job when he needed time for a medical treatment. Eventually, he couldn't keep working because of the pain. He was sacked anyway.

When he asked for a termination letter, suddenly this young man, who had been told 'You're with Future Form,' who was forced to wear Future Form's orange hi-vis every day on the job, was told, 'Oh, you're just a subbie.' Future Form is, unfortunately, just one of the major many major companies exploiting workers. Just a few months ago, we saw another disturbing example involving TQM Group, a Sydney based construction group behind major residential projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to a Sydney Morning Herald report from 9 June 2026, a construction worker speaking anonymously said Fijian migrant workers have been living for months inside unfinished TQM developments in the Sydney Inner West—mattresses on the floor, bedding in suitcases scattered through an unfinished building, clothes hanging up and even a washing machine. The worker said he had never seen anything like it on a construction site.

These were poor migrant workers building apartments marked as 'luxury living' while having to live in dangerous and disgusting conditions themselves. What was TQM's response? Complete denial.

Even the state safety regulator, SafeWork NSW, required a number of issues to be fixed through improvement notices—contrary to what TQM was saying. SafeWork NSW also investigated another site in southern Sydney. Again, they found the same issues, and, of course, TQM again denied everything.

This is the other side of the construction industry, which the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation refuse to talk about: decent construction companies, who are doing the right thing, losing work to shonks like the ones I've just mentioned—bullies and gangsters, who undercut them by ripping off workers and cutting corners— Senator McKenzie interjecting— Senator SHELDON: yet those opposite continue to stand up for those shonks, even now in this chamber.

They are the ones that the union tackles every single day. Whether it's young workers being exploited, migrants scared to speak up or people pressured to work in unsafe conditions, they need someone in their corner. Now, I know there are many on the other side who do care about these issues, who want to see a safer construction industry.

But, when the Liberals and Nationals were actually in government, the record shows otherwise. Under them, the Australian Building and Construction Commission was established, a watchdog that spent more time barking at workers for having safety posters than going after dodgy employers—those were the real issues they chased, or so they said—or spending half a million dollars on losing a High Court appeal over a CFMEU request for a women's bathroom on a worksite.

They launched a case about union officials having a cup of tea on a worksite. In that case, in 2017, Justice Tony North said it was 'astounding' that Commissioner Hadgkiss had briefed silk and conducted days of hearings with dozens of participants, including the AFP, over 'such a miniscule, insignificant affair'. The ABCC could spot a union sticker from five suburbs away but somehow missed the exploitation under its nose and the criminal activity that was going on.

Even the first bloke that the opposition put in charge of the ABCC had to resign in disgrace—the person those opposite put in charge of supposedly cleaning up the construction sector was breaking the very laws he was supposed to be policing. This is why the government has put in place a whole series of important changes to cover the construction industry—changes to make sure that workplaces are safer.

Now, it wasn't a surprise that those opposite—it was no accident. Their priorities have always been to weaken unions, to make it harder for construction workers to have a voice, to speak up. This bill is just those opposite taking advantage of allegations that have already been dealt with by the appropriate authorities to score political points, something they've done time and time again.

At the last election, one of their commitments was to deregister the union altogether. Even Master Builders Australia, who I don't often find myself quoting, made the point clearly in a media release this year: Deregistering or administration without removing the individuals responsible for misconduct does not solve the problem. That's why we put the CFMEU into independent administration.

It's why we set up and stood up the joint agency working group, chaired by the AFP and including the Fair Work Commission, the Fair Work Ombudsman and other regulators, to tackle further corruption and criminal activity in the construction industry. Relevant federal agencies have over 120 active investigations and cases underway. It's why we set up a tripartite national construction industry forum with unions and employers to implement a blueprint for the future, including a joint construction industry charter, and it's why we're consulting on new Commonwealth construction standards to stamp out unlawful and criminal behaviour and deliver safe, secure and well-paid jobs.

Our focus is to stamp out corruption in the construction industry wherever it exists. Their focus over there has always been to stamp down on workers' voices. You don't clean up this industry by leaving workers powerless.

You clean it up by driving out the crooks, strengthening the law, backing decent companies that play by the rules and making sure people on the tools still have a strong democratic voice. You'll never hear those opposite turn around and take on those shonky gangsters that are in those construction companies that are putting decent companies at risk.